quern

noun

1. A mill for grinding corn, especially a handmill made of two circular stones.

   “She is shaking in ingredients from various small bottles and querns produced from the pockets of her robes, and from the drawer in the wooden table.”

   “MacKie has noted that querns that were in use in Scotland up to the present day were about 450mm—600mm in diameter and that the lower stone was completely perforated to make it adjustable (MacKie 1987, 5).”

   “Not surprisingly, different cultures discovered the suitability of various rock types for manufacturing querns and millstones.”

verb

1. (transitive)To grind; to use a quern.

   “He could almost set aside the longing for Eyjan that ever querned within him—almost—in this place so utterly sundered from everything of hers.”

   “For women he thought these should include combing, spinning, querning, leather and fur-working and be associated with finds of beads, bracelets and perforated teeth.”

   “Beyond this now lay only chaos and a querning sea. Time's millstones, grinding bones for bread.”

   “From the osteology, a supposed link between squatting facets and prehistoric women—and by extension the interpretation that women were engaged in querning activity—is not demonstrated for the Iron Age: of the thirteen with the complaint in Deal, Kent, 62 per cent were male (Anderson 1995: table 29).”