yearning
nounverbnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈjɜːnɪŋ//
- United States//ˈjɝnɪŋ//
A wistful or melancholy longing.
noun
- 1
A wistful or melancholy longing.
She had a yearning to see her long-lost sister again.
Etymology
From Middle English yerning, from Old English ġierning, ġierninge. Equivalent to the gerund (yearn + -ing). yearn comes from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan, from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną, from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) + *-janą, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”). By surface analysis, yearn + -ing.
verb
- 1
Also a form of yearnpresent participle and gerund of yearn
I've got this burning, yearning, yearning / Feeling inside me / Ooh, deep inside me / And it hurts so bad
noun
- 1
archaicRennet (an enzyme to curdle milk in order to make cheese).
Mrs. MacClarty then took down a bottle of rennet, or yearning, as she called it.
Etymology
PIE word *ḱóm From earlier yerning, from Middle English yernyng, erning, renning. From Old English rynning and gerunnen, geurnen (“run together, coagulated, curdled”), past participles of gerinnan, geirnan, respectively. Influenced by Middle English yern (“to (cause to) coagulate or curdle”), Old English iernan (“to run, flow”), metathesized forms derived from the same origin. From verbal prefix ge- + rinnan (“to run”). First element is from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with, by”); second element is from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃r̥-néw-ti, from *h₃er- (“to move”). Doublet of rennet, run.
Forms
- plural
- yearnings
yearning · A wistful or melancholy longing.
years · A very long time.yeast · An often humid, yellowish froth produced by fermenting malt…Yeast · A surname.