Meaning

noun United States composer of musical comedies (1885-1945)

noun the part of a metal typeface that projects beyond its body

verb furnish with a kern

originFrom Middle English curn, cooren, variant forms of Middle English corn, see English corn and also Dutch kern, Old High German kerno, cherno, Middle High German kerne, kern, German Kern (“core, kernel”), Old Norse kjarni, Icelandic kjarni, Danish kjerne, Swedish kärna (“core, kernel”); see also kernel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0