Chiefly north. dial. and Sc. Forms: 4 yern, 6 Sc. yyrne, 8– yirn, 7– yearn. [Probably dial. variant of EARN v.2, with initial y-glide; cf. YEARTH, etc. Continuity with OE. ʓeyrnan (pa. pple. ȝeurnen) is improbable.]
a. intr. To coagulate, curdle. b. trans. To curdle (milk), esp. for making into cheese; to make (cheese) of curdled milk. Hence Yearned ppl. a.
1371–3. [implied in YEARNING vbl. sb.2].
a. 1568. Wyfe of Auchtermuchty, xi. (Bann. MS.). He het the milk our hett, And sorrow spark of it wald yyrne.
1635. D. Dickson, Pract. Wks. (1845), I. 33. The making of cheese of yearned milk.
? 17[?]. Gaberlunyie Man, vi., in Songs of Scotl. (1862), 177. The kirn’s to kirn, and milk to yirne.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxix. 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.
1866. ‘Sarah Tytler,’ Days of Yore, II. 219. Mrs. Hoy was salting Elspa’s butter, and ‘yearning’ her cheese.
1868. R. L. Stevenson, in Scribner’s Mag. (1899), XXV. 36/2. Curds called ‘yearned milk’ hereaway.
