perningn.
Alternative reading of peruyng periwinkle n.1 ( Sir Gawain & Green Knight 611): see quot. c1400 at periwinkle n.1 1aα. for the reading now usually adopted. N.E.D. (1905) suggested a ‘verbal noun or present participle of a conjectural verb pern, metathesized variant of preen v.2 ’ Another suggested reading ( Notes & Queries (1961) Jan. 9/1) is ‘flitting’, connected with pern v. and pirn n.1, but the explanation advanced by N. Davis (in Notes & Queries (1966) Dec. 448–51) is the one accepted by the Middle Eng. Dict., s.vv. pervink(e n. and peinten v., and modern editors: see M. Andrew & R. Waldron Poems of Pearl MS (1996) 230n.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
> as lemmas
ˈperning
ˈperning n.
ΚΠ
1960 Y. Winters Poetry of W. B. Yeats 6 The cones rotate in opposite directions, and one of them is winding the thread of life from the other: this procedure is perning or gyring.
1998 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 38 694 Circularity verging on the terrifying perning into some destructive gyre emerges immediately.
<
n.as lemmas
- licheniform
- lichenin
- lichening
- lichenins
- lichenism
- lichenist
- lichenists
- lichenivorous
- lichenized
- lichenladen
- lichenless
- lichenlike
- lichenmatted
- lichenmoss
- licheno
- licheno-
- lichenographer
- lichenographic
- lichenographical
- lichenographist
- lichenography
- lichenoid
- lichenologic
- lichenological
- lichenologies