| 释义 |
ˈkirn-ˌbaby
Also kern-.
[f. kirn n.2 + baby n. 2, ‘doll, puppet’.]
A rude semblance of a human figure made out of the last handful of corn cut on the harvest-field, and dressed as a female, which formerly played a part in the ceremonial of the kirn or harvest-home, and was afterwards often hung up on the farmer's kitchen wall until the next harvest, when its place was taken by a new one. Also called kirn-doll or kirn-dolly, maiden or kirn-maiden, harvest-queen, and, in books, after a mistaken suggestion of Brand (quot. 1777), corn-baby.
In the most usual form, the cluster of ears formed the head of the figure, while part of the stalks were plaited into two arms, and the rest expanded as a body in skirts, the whole being decorated with ribbons or gaily dressed in doll's clothes.
1777Brand Pop. Antiq. xxxi. 307 Kern Baby..the northern Word is plainly a Corruption of Corn Baby or Image, as is the Kern or Churn Supper of Corn Supper. 1787Grose Prov. Gloss., Kern-baby, an image dressed up with corn, carried before the reapers to their mell⁓supper, or harvest home. 1813Ellis Brand's Antiq. I. 422 note, An old woman..informed me that, not half a century ago, they used every where [in Northumberland] to dress up something, similar to the figure above described, at the end of Harvest, which was called a Harvest Doll, or Kern Baby. 1826in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1166. 1846 Richardson Borderer's Table-Bk. VII. 375 The corn-baby or kirn-dolly. 1866W. Henderson Folk Lore N. Counties 66 When the sickle is laid down and the last sheaf set on end..an image is at once hoisted on a pole..crowned with wheat ears and dressed up in gay finery, a white frock and coloured ribbons being its conventional attire. The whole group [of reapers] circle round this harvest queen or Kernbaby, curtseying to her, and dancing and singing. 1868Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Kern baby, an image, or possibly only a small sheaf of the newly cut corn, gaily dressed up and decorated with clothes, ribbons, flowers, &c. |