kern

See also Kern

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /kɜː(ɹ)n/, X-SAMPA: /k3:(r)n/

  Rhymes: -ɜːrn

Etymology 1

A variant of corn, see Dutch kern, Old High German kerno, cherno, Middle High German kerne, kern, German kern, Icelandic kjarni, Danish kjerne, Swedish kärna (“core, kernel”); see also kernel.

Noun

kern (countable and uncountable; plural kerns)

1. (obsolete or dialect) A corn; grain; kernel.

Related terms

• kernel

Etymology 2

Wikipedia

From French carne (“corner; projecting angle; quill of a pen”), from Latin cardinem (“hinge”) or from Etymology 1. The verb is a back-formation from kerned, which is from the noun.

Alternative forms

• kerne

Noun

kern (plural kerns)

1. (hot metal printing, typography) any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.
   • 1856, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Odd Fellows' Literary Casket, Volumes 6-7, page 360,

     A few types have a portion of the face letter projecting over the body, as in the letter f ; this projection is called the kern, and in combination with other letters the projecting part generally extends over the next letter, as in fe. In those combinations, wherein the kern would come in contact with another letter, compound types are cast, as in the case of ff, fi, fl, ffi, ffl.

Verb

kern (third-person singular simple present kerns, present participle kerning, simple past and past participle kerned)

1. (typography, chiefly proportional font printing) To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs); to perform such adjustments to a portion of text, according to preset rules.
   • 2001, Constance J. Sidles, Graphic Designer's Digital Printing and PrePress Handbook, page 51,

     If you need to kern anything beyond the most commonly used pairs, you can use applications software such as Adobe PageMaker to customize pairs.

   • 2001, Bill Camarda, Special Edition Using Microsoft Word 2002, page 122,

     Especially consider kerning if you are printing on a relatively high-resolution printer, such as a 600-dpi (dots per inch) laser printer.

   • 2006, Tova Rabinowitz, Exploring Typography, page 320,

     Remember, the goal of kerning is to make letter pairs look natural, not necessarily to minimize letterspaces.

   • 2008, Terry Rydberg, Exploring Adobe InDesign CS4, page 98,

     You should kern letter pairs when spacing between characters is too wide or too narrow.

Derived terms

• kern pair

Etymology 3

Wikipedia

From Middle Irish ceithern.

Alternative forms

• kerne

Noun

kern (plural kerns)

1. (archaic or historical) A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.
   • circa 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fifth, Act 3, Scene 7,

     O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait strossers.

   • 1908, Sabine Baring-Gould, Devonshire Characters and Strange Events: "Lusty" Stucley,

     There he entertained Shan O'Neil, a famous, turbulent chief from Ireland, who late in this year visited Elizabeth's Court, where his train of kerns and gallowglasses, clothed in linen kilts dyed with saffron, made a great impression.

Etymology 4

Noun

kern (plural kerns)

1. Alternative form of quern.

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Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch kerne, from Old Dutch *kerno, from Proto-Germanic *kernô.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

kern f (plural kernen, diminutive kerntje)

1. nucleus, core
2. (physics) nucleus (of an atom)
3. (physics, in compounds) nuclear
4. (geology) core (of the Earth)
5. (mathematics) kernel (of a function)
6. settlement, built-up area

Derived terms

kernbom kerncentrale kernfusie kernramp kernsplijting

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Manx

Etymology

From Middle Irish ceithern.

Noun

kern m (genitive kern, plural kernyn)

1. (military) soldier, infantryman, yeoman
2. (chess) pawn

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
kern	chern	gern
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Synonyms

• (soldier, pawn): sidoor