Word: quern
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...truffling in his works for deep-lying meanings. His word games in Harlequins justify the warning. Butterflies, however, may be chased. Nabokov, for instance, taught at Cornell University after emigrating to the U.S., and his clownish alter ego taught at "Quirn." The Oxford English Dictionary directs the student to "Quern," which derives in its first definition from a variety of languages, including old High German, Swedish and Russian ("Zhernov"), and means "a simple apparatus for grinding corn." The second definition is "a large piece of ice." These are not illuminating; but "obsolete variant of kern" leads directly to "corn...
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