Forms: 4– kerne, 6 karn(e, 6–8 kearne, 6– kern. [ad. Ir. ceithern, (ceatharn), pronounced (ke·hěrn) or (ke·ərn), OIr. ceitern, OCelt. keterna, a band of foot-soldiers; adopted in Eng. not only in its collective sense, but also to denote an individual soldier, = the Irish ceithearnach, ceatharnach, whence KERNAUGH. Cf. KETHERIN and CATERAN, representing adoptions of ceithern or the synonymous Sc. Gael. ceatharn, at a time when the dental was still pronounced.
Stanyhurst (Descr. Irel. viii.) gives a fanciful derivation of ceithern from ceath or cith shower, and ifrinn hell. ‘Kerne signifieth (as noble men of deepe iudgement informed me) a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rakehels.’ In later Irish cearn (for ceatharn) is used in the sense of ‘banditti.’]
1. Hist. A light-armed Irish foot-soldier (cf. quot. 1600); one of the poorer class among the ‘wild Irish,’ from whom such soldiers were drawn. (Sometimes applied to Scottish Highlanders.)
Stanyhurst divides the followers of an Irish chief into five classes—daltins or boys, grooms, kerns, gallowglasses, and horsemen.
1351. Ordin. Dubl. & Kilk., ii. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 257. Si nul … ne tiegne kernes, hobelours ne udives gentz en terre. Ibid. Que kerne ou nul altre prenge nul manere des vitailles ou altre biens.
1358. Ord. Hibern., 31 Edw. III., m. 11, 12 (Blount, Law Dict.). Nec non de illis qui dicuntur homines ociosi, et malefactoribus, qui etiam Kernys dicuntur.
1423. Rolls Parlt., IV. 199/1. What tyme the same Kernes hadde hym in governance, they bette hym.
1556. W. Towrson, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 112. The South part of Irelande … The country people which were wilde Kernes.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 156. Now for our Irish warres, We must supplant those rough rug-headed Kernes, Which liue like venom.
1600. Dymmok, Ireland (1843), 7. The kerne is a kinde of footeman, sleightly armed with a sworde, a targett of woode, or a bow and sheafe of arrows with barbed heades, or els 3 dartes.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Ded. 58. Hibernia, prostrate at your feet…. The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., V. xiv. Soars thy presumption then so high Because a wretched kern ye slew?
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. IV. viii. 227. He was … bribing Irish kernes to rise against the English rule.
b. In collective sense; † orig. a troop or band of Irish foot-soldiers (obs.).
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 133. He slowe the same Waltere wyth a grete kerne dyscomfitid.
1550. Acts Privy Counc. Eng. (1891), III. 79. To paie the waiges of the Kerne being at Chester and at London.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 182. Horsemen and kern should not be imposed upon the common people, to be fed and maintained by them.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., I. iv. (1810), 58. Iohn Fitz Thomas accompanied with one hundred Kerne.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, V. x. I’ve seen a ring of rugged kerne, With aspects shaggy, wild, and stern.
1872. Deeside Tales, 125 (E.D.D.). The kern were makan’ aff wi’ a stirkie frae Rhineton as well.
2. transf. A rustic, peasant, boor; † contemptuously vagabond, rascal (obs.). Now rare.
1553. Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, II. (1558), 82. He commaunded a kerne and hym also … be prynted with Thracean markes, to goo beefore with a drawne swoorde.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 43. What curst Myrmidones, what karne of canckred Vlisses?
1600. Holland, Livy, III. lxix. 135. The countrie kernes that fled (to Rome,) … reported more foule and cruell outrages.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., s.v., We take a Kern most commonly for a Farmer or Country Bumpkin.
1856. W. E. Aytoun, Bothwell (1857), 2. The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.
