The story
- Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*gʷréh₂wō“heavy stone”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kwernō“millstone”
- Old English · inherited fromcweorn“quern, hand-mill, mill”
- Middle English · inherited fromquern
- English todayquern
From Middle English quern, cwerne, from Old English cweorn (“quern, hand-mill, mill”), from Proto-Germanic *kwernō (“millstone”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂wō (“heavy stone”), from *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Swedish kvarn, Tocharian B kärweñe, Lithuanian girna, Russian жёрнов (žórnov, “millstone”).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishcweorn all →
QuarringtonKerne Bridge
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.