Hist. Also 6 -karne, 7 -carne, -cerne. [trans. Ir. ceithearnach coille (ceithearn KERN sb.1, coill wood).] An Irish outlaw or robber haunting woods or wild country: such outlaws collectively.
Used by Holland to render L. latro.
1548. State Papers, Irel., Edw. VI., I. 84 (MS.). The kynd of peopull which we call outlawes & wodkerne.
1581. Derricke (title), The Image of Irelande, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne, wherein is … expressed, the Nature … of the … Wilde Irishe Woodkarne, their notable aptnesse celeritie and pronesse to Rebellion.
1600. Holland, Livy, XI. ix. 1065. The same is said unto me … which were more beseeming to speake unto a wood-kerne and robber by the high-way side.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 101. Cormacke O Neale … was of a mild honest disposition … yet … little lesse barberous then the better sort of wood kern.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 210. The Lawlesse Wood Carnes in Ireland.
1656. in P. H. Hore, Hist. Wexford (1911), VI. 516. Mount Leinster … which by reason of the great adjoining woods hath always beene haunted with Irish Toryes or Woodcernes.
1845. Petrie, Eccl. Archit. Irel., 96. At the close of the sixteenth century, these Towers became the receptacles of thieves and wood-kerne.
