yearn

Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Middle English yernen, yern (“to express or feel desire; to desire, long or wish for; to lust after; to ask or demand for”) [and other forms], from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan (“to be eager for, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną (“to desire, want”), from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) (from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + *-janą (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives). The noun is derived from the verb.

verb

1. (intransitive, also figurative) To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
   All I yearn for is a simple life.
   But all that night his body yearned for Alec's, despite him. He called it lustful, a word easily uttered, and opposed it to his work, his family, his friends, his position in society. […] But his body would not be convinced. 1913–1960 (writing and revisions), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 40, in Maurice, London: Penguin Books, published 1971 (1987 printing), page 181
   1. (specifically) To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
      If I don’t go now, thought Charlotte, I shall have lost a chance which I shall eternally regret and yearn after. 1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published February 1972, page 420
      Having shaken the dust of the ugly new South Africa from his feet, is he yearning for the South Africa of the old days, when Eden was still possible? 2002, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 17, in Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, 1st American edition, London: Vintage Books, page 137
2. (intransitive) Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
3. (intransitive, dated) To have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc., toward someone.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To be distressed or pained; to grieve; to mourn.
5. (transitive) Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
6. (transitive, archaic or poetic) To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).
7. (transitive, obsolete) To cause (someone) to have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc.; also, to grieve or pain (someone).
   When the badger finds that the terriers yearn him in his burrow, he will stop the hole between him and the terriers; […] 1833, [William Hamilton Maxwell], “Badger-hunting”, in The Field Book: Or, Sports and Pastimes of the United Kingdom;[…], London: Effingham Wilson, →OCLC, page 31, column 2
   Wants to sneeze and cannot do it! / Now it yearns me, thrills me, stings me, / Now with rapturous torment wrings me, / Now says “Sneeze, you fool; get through it.” 25 June 1834, Leigh Hunt, “A Pinch of Snuff (Concluded.)”, in Leigh Hunt’s London Journal, volume I, number 13, London: Charles Knight,[…]; and Henry Hooper,[…], →OCLC, page 98, column 1

noun

1. A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.
   August 12 1917, “A YEARN FOR PEACE; Pan-Germanism Denounced”, in Sunday Times, Perth, WA, page 1:
   Gibbs now said he wasn't going to pull any punches with Gary when he knew how jealous a man could get, so he also wanted to tell him that Phil Hansen was reputed to have a yearn for attractive ladies. 1979, Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
   "After he had made a record date with us in 1935, I always had a yearn for Ben," he said years later. 2010, Frank Buchmann-Moller, Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster, University of Michigan Press, page 57
   "My guess, however, is that it has because there are many people who have a yearn for sex outside their relationship but wouldn't have the slightest idea about how to do it or do it safely," Prof Schwartz added. February 13 2014, AFP, “Why internet adultery numbers are soaring”, in New Zealand Herald

Etymology 2

Probably either: * a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnen (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or * a back-formation from yearning (“(Scotland, archaic) rennet; calf (or other animal’s) stomach used to make rennet”).

verb

1. (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive)
   1. Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.
   2. Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, transitive)
   1. To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
   2. To make (cheese) from curdled milk.