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The word “ quern” comes directly from the Saxon or 
Teutonic name, with which it is identical. Another simple 
and domestic machine, the churn, derives its appellation 
doubtless from the same root; the office of both being to 
separate,—in the one instance, the meal from the husk, and 
in the other, the butter from the milk. It seems more than 
probable that the Latin verb “ cerno,” whose primary mean- 
ing is to separate or divide, took its rise from the operation 
of these very primitive implements of domestic economy. 
The approximation in sound will be apparent, if we pro- 
nounce the Latin letter c hard, assome scholars maintain we 
should do. 
In the Celtic language the quern is denominated ‘ Bro,” 
and inthe Welsh or British, ‘‘ Breyan;” both words having 
the same origin as the old French verb ‘ Broyer,” from 
which we derive a verb not in very general use, but yet to 
be found in a work of standard authority, the English 
translation of the Scriptures, where, as it will be observed, 
it is met in conjunction with the operation of reducing 
corn to meal: ‘* Though thou shouldest bray a fool ina mor- 
tar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness 
depart from him.” One very ancient form of quern ap- 
proaches nearly to the modern mortar, the under stone 
being a basin supported upon a tripod. 
The quern is also called in Irish cloch-vron, a term which 
occurs in the well known Glossary of Cormac Mac Cuillenan, 
and has been translated to signify ‘‘ the stone of sorrow,” 
having allusion to the laborious and servile occupation which 
in ancient times grinding with it was generally esteemed to 
be. That such, however, was not always the case, appears 
from an anecdote quoted by Mr. Smith from Professor Ten- 
nant, respecting Pittacus, king of Mitylene, one of the seven 
wise men of Greece, who it seems “ had been accustomed in 
moments of unoccupied languor to resort for amusement to 
the grinding mill, that being, as he called it, his best gym- 
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