Kern Definition

kûrn
kerns
noun
kerns
A medieval Irish or Scottish foot soldier armed with light weapons.
Webster's New World
That part of the face of a printed character which projects beyond the body.
Webster's New World
A loutish person.
American Heritage
An Irish peasant.
Webster's New World
(obsolete or dialect) A corn; grain; kernel.
Wiktionary
Synonyms:
  • jerome david kern
  • Jerome Kern
verb
kerns
To provide (type) with a kern.
American Heritage
To put a kern on (a printed character)
Webster's New World
(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.
Wiktionary
Antonyms:

Other Word Forms of Kern

Noun

Singular:
kern
Plural:
kerns

Origin of Kern

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

    From Wiktionary

  • 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.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English kerne from Middle Irish ceithern, ceithernn band of soldiers from Old Irish

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • French carne corner from Old North French from Latin cardō cardin- hinge

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle Irish ceithern.

    From Wiktionary

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