yern

• yearn

From Middle English yern (“willing, eager”), from Old English ġeorn (“eager”), from Proto-Germanic *gernaz. Cognate with Danish gerne (“gladly”), Dutch gaarne (“with pleasure, gladly”), German gern (“willingly, gladly”), Icelandic gjarn (“willing, keen, eager”), Icelandic gjarna (“willingly, readily, gladdly”), Swedish gärna (“willingly, gladly”). See also yearnful and yearnfully.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /jəːn/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

yern

1. (obsolete) Willing, eager, covetous, swift, nimble, earnest.

   He was yern to go, for nought could he be stayed.

   • Chaucer

     But of her song, it was as loud and yern / As any swallow sitting on a bern.

yern

1. (obsolete) eagerly, heartily, gladly, willingly, earnestly.

   I am not afraid of death, and when my time comes I'll go yern.

   • A Royal Historie of the Excellent Knight Generides

     Who was so hardie and so stern? Tel me now, I pray you yern

   • The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis (a1500)

     All the people cried yernː God Master, now defend thy bairn.

   • Dunbar (1508)

     He trowis that ȝoung folk I ȝern ȝeild.

   • Gavin Douglas (1513)

     The black swarm (of ants) over the fields walks yern.

For the adverb, the form yearnly can also be found, but is much rarer.

• yern in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• The Dictionary of Early English
• A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
• The Middle English Dictionary
• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

yern (third-person singular simple present yerns, present participle yerning, simple past and past participle yerned)

1. Obsolete form of yearn.

• Nery, reyn