kern
1 of 3noun (1)
ˈkərn 
ˈkern
ˈkern variants or kerne
1
: a light-armed foot soldier of medieval Ireland or Scotland
2
: yokel
kern
2 of 3noun (2)
ˈkərn
: a part of a typeset letter that projects beyond its side bearings
kern
3 of 3verb
ˈkərn
kerned; kerning; kerns
transitive + intransitive
typography
: to adjust or specify the width of the side bearings between certain pairs of adjacent characters in order to improve the appearance and legibility of composed text
manually kerning pairs of letters
a kerned font [=a font that includes kerned letter pairs]
With the spacing set up (accounting for wider letters like M and W) I started kerning. This was a massively painstaking process.
James Barnard
James Barnard
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English kerne, from Middle Irish cethern band of soldiers
Noun (2)
French carne corner, from French dialect, from Latin cardin-, cardo hinge
Verb
derivative of kern entry 2
First Known Use
Noun (1)
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Noun (2)
1683, in the meaning defined above
Verb
1986, in the meaning defined above
Geographical Definition
Kern
geographical name
ˈkərn
river 150 miles (241 kilometers) long in south central California flowing southwest into a reservoir
Biographical Definition
Kern
biographical name
ˈkərn
Jerome David 1885–1945 American composer