acquerne

Middle English
FWOTD – 7 October 2018

Etymology

From Old English ācweorna, āc-wern, āqueorna (“squirrel”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *aikwernô (“squirrel”). The word is cognate with Danish egern, Middle Dutch êncoren (modern Dutch eekhoorn, eikhoren, inkhoren), Norwegian ekorn, Old High German eichhorn, eihhorno (modern German Eichhorn), Low German êker-ken, Old Norse íkorni, Old Saxon ēkhorn.[2]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈaːkwɛrn(ə)/, /ˈɔːkwɛrn(ə)/

Noun

acquerne (plural acquernes)

  1. A squirrel.
  2. The fur of a squirrel.
    • c. 1175?, “II. A Moral Ode. [Jesus College (Oxford) MS I. Arch. I. 29.]”, in Richard Morris, editor, An Old English Miscellany Containing a Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, Religious Poems of the Thirteenth Century, […] (Original Series; 49), London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co., […], published 1872, OCLC 359405, folio 247, recto, lines 357–358, page 70:
      Þer nys nouþer fou ne grey. ne konyng, ne hermyne. / Ne oter. ne acquerne. Beuveyr ne sablyne.
      (please add an English translation of this quote)

Synonyms

Alternative forms
  • aquerne
  • aquierne
  • ōc-querne, ocquerne
  • okerne

References
  1. “ōc-querne, n.” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 September 2018.
  2. “aquerne, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1885.
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