Forms: 1 cyrin, 5 kyrne, (scharne), 5–6 chyrne, 6 chirne, charne, 5–7 cherne, chearme, 7 churm(e (still a dial. pronunciation), 6– churn. North. dial. KIRN q.v. [OE. cyrin str. fem. for *cirn, *ciern, a Common Teutonic word; cf. MLG., MG. kirne, kerne, Ger. dial. kirn, kern, LG. karne, karn, MDu. kerne, karne, Du. karn; ON. kirna (Da. kjærne, Sw. kärna), wk. fem., also kjarna- in comb.]
The alleged OE. ceren is an error of Junius in Lye, carelessly repeated in Dictionaries since. The actual forms point to various types, kernâ-, kirnjâ, kernôn-, kirnjôn-. On the whole the strong forms appear to be WGer., the first being represented by Du. and Ger. kerne, karn(e, the second by Ger. kirn(e and OE. *cirn, *ciern, cyrin. The weak forms appear to be Scandinavian, ON. kjarna-, and the Du., Sw., and Da. pointing to kernôn, Icel. kirna to kirnjôn. The ulterior etymology of kirn- is uncertain, but see Hildebrand in Grimm s.v. Kernen 3 c; it is not related to cwern-, quern- mill.]
1. A vessel or machine for making butter, in which cream or milk is shaken, benten, and broken, so as to separate the oily globules which form the butter from the serous parts.
c. 1000. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 280/32. Sinum, cyrin.
c. 1425. ibid., 666/12. Hec antipera, kyrne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 76. Chyrne, vesselle, cimbia, cumbia.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 793/21. Hoc valatorium, a scharne.
1485. Inv., in Ripon Ch. Acts, 371. j cherne.
1570. Levins, Manip., 81/36. A cherne, fidelia. Ibid., 191/12. A churne.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 146 b. A vessell rather deepe than big, round and Cilinder fashion: although in some places they have other kinde of Charmes low and flat, wherin … they so shake the milke.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Baratte, a charning tub, or charne.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Open. (1677), 112. If you put these clouts into a churn with other cream.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 246/2. The barrel slung upon a frame, and turned with two winch-handles is one of the most familiar forms of churn.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Churm, sb. and v., var. pron. of ‘churn.’
2. Extended to other vessels or instruments with some resemblance to the prec., e.g., a kind of pump used in mines, the block or chuck on a porcelain-turner’s lathe, a milkcan shaped like the upright chum, etc.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., 2 ij. Common Pumps used in the Mines, such as Raggs, Churns, Sweaps, Forces, for drawing of Water.
3. A local popular name of the Daffodil.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.).
4. [from the vb.] Churning (of water, etc.).
a. 1882. Rossetti, Ball. & Sonnets, White Ship. Out of the churn of the choking ship.
5. attrib. and in Comb., as churn-maid, -power, -shaped, -works; churn-boot, a large boot, supposed to resemble the upright chum; churn-dash, -dasher, the appliance for agitating the milk in the churn; churn-drill (see quot.); churnful, as much as a churn holds; churn-getting, dial., = next; churn-supper (= kirn-supper, KIRN, a churn, being identified with KIRN, a harvest-home), a supper given at a harvest-home. See also CHURN-MILK, CHURN-STAFF.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 28. The military classes in those old times, whose buff-belts, complicated chains and gorgets, huge *churn-boots … have been bepainted in modern Romance.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 3. 25. A little water-wheel … communicated motion to a *churndash which made the butter.
1877. N. W. Lincolnsh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Churn-dash, the machinery in the interior of a churn.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Churn-drill, a large drill used by miners. It is several feet long, and has a chisel point at each end.
1866. Waugh, Ben an’ th’ Bantam, vi. 118. On their way home from a *churn-gettin’—as the hay-harvest supper is called.
1879. Natal Mag., IV. 307. I was not … caught by *churn-maids or promiscuous spectators a second time.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Churn-power, a motor for driving churns or churn-dashers to agitate the milk or cream.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. (1876), 468. The Harvest-supper in some places is called a Mell-supper and a *Chum-supper.
1870. Brand’s Antiq. (ed. Hazlitt), II. 18. Aram asserted that it was called the Churn Supper, because, from immemorial times, it was customary to produce in a Churn a great quantity of cream and to circulate it in cups to each of the rustic company.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Churn-supper, an evening feast to celebrate the close of the hay harvest.
1877. N. W. Lincolnsh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Churn-dash or *Churn-works.
