Meaning

verb desire strongly or persistently

verb have a desire for something or someone who is not present

verb have affection for; feel tenderness for

originProbably either: * a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0