Sc. and north. dial. Also 9 kern, kurn, curn. [Of uncertain etymology: see Note below.]
1. A feast or merry-making held on the completion of the harvest; a harvest-home or harvest-supper. (Thing and name are passing out of use.)
1777. [see KIRN-BABY].
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 124. As bleak-fac’d Hallowmass returns, They get the jovial, ranting kirns, When rural life, o’ ev’ry station, Unite in common recreation.
1806. Douglas, Poems, 143 (E. D. D.). Hame they gang to get the kirn.
1808. Scott, Marm., IV. Introd. 101. Who envies now the shepherd’s lot,… His rustic kirn’s loud revelry.
1883. J. Purves, in Longm. Mag., April, 657. The oldest rustic festival here [in Lothian] is the harvest home, or ‘Kirn.’
2. The cutting of the last handful of corn (the kirn-cut) on the harvest-field. Chiefly in the phrases To win (get) the kirn: to gain the distinction of cutting down the last armful of corn; to succeed in finishing the harvest; To cry or shout the kirn: to cheer or shout in token of this. (Now rare.)
1808–18. Jamieson, Kirn, the last handful of grain cut down on the harvest-field.
1821. Blackw. Mag., 400 (Jam.). I shall either gain a kiss from some fair lip for winning the kirn, or some shall have hot brows for it.
1836. J. M. Wilson, Tales Bord., II. 209 (E. D. D.). An hour would be sufficient to terminate their harvest toils and win the kirn.
1866. Henderson, Folk-lore N. Counties, 66. When the sickle is laid down, and the last sheaf of golden corn set on end, it is said that they have ‘got the kern.’ [The words I have heard used in crying the kirn in Roxburghshire, a. 1860, were ‘The corn’s shorn, the kirn’s won, Kirnie, kirnie, coo-oo-oo!’ the last word much prolonged. J. A. H. M.]
3. attrib. and Comb., as kirn-bannock, -feast, -night; kirn-cut = sense 2; kirn-supper, the harvest-home supper (see also churn-supper, s.v. CHURN sb. 5); kirn-winning = sense 2.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl. (1876), 405. A piece … of the *kirn-bannock.
1810. Cromek, Rem. Nithsdale Song, 259. From the same pin depended the *kirn-cut of corn, curiously braided and adorned with ribbons.
1862. J. Grant, Capt. of Guard, xlv. Above the mantelpiece hung the … kirn-cuts of corn gaily ornamented with ribbons—the trophies of the last year’s harvest home.
1846. Drummond’s Muckomachy, 32 (E. D. D.). At fairs, *kirn-feasts, and penny weddins.
1789. Burns, Let. Lady Glencairn. At gala-times, such as New-year’s day, a christening, or the *kirn-night,… my punch-bowl is brought from its dusty corner.
1777. *Kern Supper [see KIRN-BABY].
1822. Bewick, Mem., 26. The man … when he met me had been on his way to a ‘kirn supper.’
1864. Chambers’ Bk. of Days, II. 379/2. In Scotland, under the name of the Kirn or Kirn-supper.
1819. in Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 65. To murry-neets, *kurn-winnins, Hannah ne’er went.
[Note. The instances of the word kirn or kern are quite recent, and leave us in the dark as to its earlier history. The popular notion often associates it with KIRN sb.2, CHURN; and there are positive statements that a churnful of cream was a prominent item in the harvest-supper (J. Nicol, Poems (1805), I. 154; Hone, Year-bk. (1832), 10 Sept., 534/2; Haliburton, Puir Auld Sc. (1887), 148–9). See also churn-supper, s.v. CHURN sb. 5. But this may be due only to popular etymology. If the word were old, it might in form represent an OE. *ʓe-cyrn = OHG. gikurni, shortened kurni, churni, MHG. kürne, kürn, ‘corn collectively or of all kinds’ (see Grimm, s.v. Korn 1 d). But this hardly suits the sense, unless indeed *ʓecyrn could have meant something like ‘completion (of the reaping or ingathering of all the corn).’ (Prof. E. Sievers.)]
