# yearn
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /jɜːn/
* (General American) enPR: yûrn, IPA: /jɝn/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Homophone: yern
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

### Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Middle English yernen, yern (“to express or feel desire; to desire, long or wish for; to lust after; to ask or demand for”) [and other forms], from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan (“to be eager for, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną (“to desire, want”), from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) (from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + *-janą (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).
The noun is derived from the verb.

#### Verb

yearn (third-person singular simple present yearns, present participle yearning, simple past and past participle yearned or (rare) yearnt)
* (intransitive, also figuratively) To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
    All I yearn for is a simple life.
** c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv, page 56, column 2:I muſt do that my heart-ſtrings yern to do: but my word's paſt.
** 1711 August 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, August 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 142; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 243:You are now before my eyes, my eyes that are ready to flow with tenderness, but cannot give relief to my gushing heart, that dictates what I am now saying, and yearns to tell you all its achings.The spelling has been modernized.
** 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Thirty-second”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 274:By morning's cheerful glow, but oftener still by evening's gentle light, the child, with a respect for the short and happy intercourse of these two sisters which forbade her to approach and say a thankful word, although she yearned to do so, followed them at a distance in their walks and rambles, […]
** 1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, chapter X, in “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897, →OCLC, page 298:What his soul yearned after was control of his father's newly purchased sailing-ship.
** 1911 January, Jack London, “Just Meat”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 125:And Jim supported his twitching body by holding on to the sink, the while he yearned toward the yellowish concoction that stood for life.
** 1913–1960 (writing and revisions), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 40, in Maurice, London: Penguin Books, published 1971 (1987 printing), →ISBN, page 181:But all that night his body yearned for Alec's, despite him. He called it lustful, a word easily uttered, and opposed it to his work, his family, his friends, his position in society. […] But his body would not be convinced.
** 1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Letters from Home”, in Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC, page 50:Anne, please tell me over again that you like me a little bit. I yearn to hear it.
** (specifically) To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
*** 1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published February 1972, →ISBN, page 420:If I don’t go now, thought Charlotte, I shall have lost a chance which I shall eternally regret and yearn after.
*** 2002, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 17, in Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, 1st American edition, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 137:Having shaken the dust of the ugly new South Africa from his feet, is he yearning for the South Africa of the old days, when Eden was still possible?
* (intransitive) Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
** 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 86:The music, yearning like a God in pain, / She scarcely heard: […]
* (intransitive, dated) To have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc., toward someone.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 43:30, column 1:And Joſeph made haſte: for his bowels did yerne upon his brother: and he ſought where to weepe, and hee entred into his chamber, & wept there.
** 1711 August 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, July 21, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 123; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 158:I have left your mother in the next room. Her heart yearns towards you.The spelling has been modernized.
** 1873, Charles Reade, chapter XII, in A Simpleton: A Story of the Day […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 99–100:Oh, it was a pretty sight to see this modest young creature, little more than a child herself, anticipating maternity, but blushing every now and then, and looking askant at her lord and master. How his very bowels yearned over her!
** 1880, [Henry Brooks Adams], chapter III, in Democracy: An American Novel (Leisure-hour Series; no. 112), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 52:[…] Mr. Ratcliffe’s heart yearned toward the charming girl quite with the sensations of a father, or even of an elder brother.
** 1883 June, Ralph Iron [pseudonym; Olive Schreiner], “Tant’ Sannie Holds an Upsitting, and Gregory Writes a Letter”, in The Story of an African Farm, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: H. M. Caldwell Company, →OCLC, part II, page 248:But supper had cheered Tant' Sannie, who found it impossible longer to maintain that decorous silence, and whose heart yearned over the youth.
* (intransitive, obsolete) To be distressed or pained; to grieve; to mourn.
** 1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XVII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume II, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 144:My father’s and my uncle Toby’s hearts yearn’d with ſympathy for the poor fellow’s diſtreſs,— […]
* (transitive) Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
* (transitive, archaic or poetic) To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).
    Synonym: (obsolete) earn
* (transitive, obsolete) To cause (someone) to have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc.; also, to grieve or pain (someone).
    Synonym: (obsolete) earn
** c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 52, column 2:Well, ſhe laments Sir for it, that it would yern your heart to see it: […]
** 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 86, column 2:It yernes me not, if men my Garments weare; / Nor care I who doth feed vpon my coſt: / Such outward things dwell not in my deſires. / But if it be a ſinne to couet Honor, / I am the moſt offending Soule aliue.
** 1833, [William Hamilton Maxwell], “Badger-hunting”, in The Field Book: Or, Sports and Pastimes of the United Kingdom; […], London: Effingham Wilson, →OCLC, page 31, column 2:When the badger finds that the terriers yearn him in his burrow, he will stop the hole between him and the terriers; […]
** 1834 June 25, Leigh Hunt, “A Pinch of Snuff (Concluded.)”, in Leigh Hunt’s London Journal, volume I, number 13, London: Charles Knight, […]; and Henry Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 1:Wants to sneeze and cannot do it! / Now it yearns me, thrills me, stings me, / Now with rapturous torment wrings me, / Now says “Sneeze, you fool; get through it.”

##### Conjugation

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete.

##### Derived terms

* my people yearn for freedom
* yearner
* yearnful
* yearning
* yearnly
* yearnsome
* yearny

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Noun

yearn (plural yearns)
* A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.
    Synonyms: lust, urge; see also Thesaurus:craving
** 1917 August 12, “A YEARN FOR PEACE; Pan-Germanism Denounced”, in Sunday Times, Perth, WA, page 1:
** 1979, Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song‎:Gibbs now said he wasn't going to pull any punches with Gary when he knew how jealous a man could get, so he also wanted to tell him that Phil Hansen was reputed to have a yearn for attractive ladies.
** 2010, Frank Buchmann-Moller, Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 57:"After he had made a record date with us in 1935, I always had a yearn for Ben," he said years later.
** 2014 February 13, AFP, “Why internet adultery numbers are soaring”, in New Zealand Herald:"My guess, however, is that it has because there are many people who have a yearn for sex outside their relationship but wouldn't have the slightest idea about how to do it or do it safely," Prof Schwartz added.

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Probably either:
* a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
* a back-formation from yearning (“(Scotland, archaic) rennet; calf (or other animal’s) stomach used to make rennet”).

#### Verb

yearn (third-person singular simple present yearns, present participle yearning, simple past and past participle yearned)
* (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive)
** Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.
    Synonyms: (obsolete or regional) earn, run
** Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.
* (Northern England, Scotland, transitive)
** To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
** To make (cheese) from curdled milk.
*** 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 24:Also his Honour the Duke will accept ane of our Dunlop cheeses, and it sall be my faut if a better was ever yearned in Lowden.

##### Translations
### References

* ↑ “yernen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Compare “yearn, v.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “yearn, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “yearn, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2018.
* ↑ “yearn, v.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
* ↑ “rennen, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Anagrams

* Aeryn, Arney, Neary, Neyra, Raney, Rayne, Yaren, aryne, rayne, renay, yarne