Other forms: yearning, yearns, yearned
To yearn is to long deeply for something out of reach. Yearn for home, yearning for a child, yearn to be free.
The out-of-reach part is what distinguishes it from wanting: you yearn for what you cannot have or have lost. It takes for or to. It is a literary word and carries an ache with it. Note yearning as a noun; and that yearn comes from an Old English word meaning eager, which is also related to the German gern, meaning gladly.
1verbyearnTo long deeply for something out of reach.
“Stuck in the office all day, he yearned for the open sea.”
yearn is a deep longing.
Also accepted in games: crave
Middle English yernen comes from Old English giernan, to desire, from a root meaning eager. The German gern, meaning gladly, is from the same eagerness.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰer- — to yearn for
Proto-Germanic
*girnijaną — to desire, want
Proto-West Germanic
*girnijan — to be eager for, desire
Old English
ġeornan — to desire, yearn; to beg
Middle English
yernen
English, today
yearn
Built from
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”)gern, ierne, yerne, yrne, ȝarne, ȝarnin, ȝarnon, ȝern, ȝerne, ȝernen, ȝiern, ȝirnin, ȝorn, ȝyrn, ȝyrne, (chiefly Northern English) gerne, giern, yarne, yhern, yherne, (Northwest Midlands) yurn, (Early Middle English) georne, geornen, gierne, girne, gyrne, ierne, irne, ȝeorne, ȝeornen, ȝeornnen, ȝernenn, ȝierne, ȝirnæn, ȝirn, ȝirne, ȝurn, ȝurne, (Early Middle English, Northern England) yhern, yherne, yiern, ȝarne, ȝherne, (Early Middle English, Southwest England) herne, ȝorne, ȝurn, ȝurne, (Early Middle English, Southwest Midlands) ȝeorne, ȝeornne, ȝirni, ȝurne, from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”)(chiefly Late Old English) iærnan, ieornan, gernan (rare), gurnan, (Old English) geornan, giernan, giornan (chiefly Northumbria), girnan, gyrnan, gyrnnan (rare), 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 gʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + -janą. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA