891 



The word " quern" conies 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, as some scholars maintain we 

 should do. 



In the Celtic language the quern is denominated "Bro," 

 and in the 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 in a 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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