A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1420, 1482-1508, 1576
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Quern(e, n.2 Also: qwern(e, quheyrne, quhayrne. [Sc. var. of Curn n. Cf. north. ME qwern, qweryn ? ‘a large piece of ice’ (a1400–50).]
1. A lump or piece (of molten metal, wax or rosin).Appar. applied only to matter solidified from a liquid or molten state.c1420 Wynt. iv 1896.
All the metall moltynnyd than In tyll a qwerne [W. querne, A. quheyrne, E.2 quhayrne] togydder ran [L. confluxissent in unum] 1482 Acts Lords Auditors 109/1.
For the wrangwis spoliatioun & with-halding of … thre bolle of malt a qwern of rosate of vj stane certane petis [etc.] 1503 Acts Lords of Council MS XIV 133b.
j querne of walx 1503 Ib. 134.
Twa quernis walx 1576 Edinburgh Testaments IV 114b.
Tua quernis of rosat
2. A (specified) proportion of grain. = Curn n. (2).1503 Aberd. Sheriff Ct. I 74.
That ilk place will gif the thrid querne of ats and the ferd querne of beir 1508 Ib. 78.
The said thrid parts of lands is xl bollis of ats savin [etc.] … estimat to the thrid querne
