yearn

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /jɜːn/
• (General American) enPR: yûrn, IPA^(key): /jɝn/

• Audio (GA)

  (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”) , from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) , 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 *ǵʰer- (“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)

1. (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.

   1. (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?

2. (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: […]

3. (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.

4. (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 and J 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,— […]

5. (transitive) Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
6. (transitive, archaic or poetic) To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).

   Synonym: (obsolete) earn

7. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 52, column 2:

     Well, ſhe laments Sir for it, that it would yern your heart to see it: […]

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

yearn (plural yearns)

1. A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.
   • 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)  , a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnen (“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)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive)
   1. Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.

      Synonyms: (obsolete or regional) earn, run

   2. Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, transitive)
   1. To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
   2. 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

Anagrams

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