ker

n.

Gaw kerre

‘thicket on marshy ground’ (Modern English carr)

Etymology

cp. OIcel kjarr ‘copsewood, brushwood’ < PGmc *kerza-.  There are no clear cognates in Go or WGmc; an OE cognate would have shown palatalization. 

PGmc Ancestor

*kerza-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

kjarr 'copsewood, brushwood’ 
(ONP kjarr (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far (name element) kjarr, Icel kjarr, Norw kjarr, kjerr, Dan kær, Sw kärr 

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

absence of palatalization of */k/

Summary category

A1bc

Attestation

Attested only in N and E, mostly in place-names and derivative surnames rather than literary texts. MnE N and EM dial. See further EPNE and Gevenich 1918: 94, and Elliott 1984: 77, 147 and 1989: 13.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1421, 1431

Bibliography

MED kēr (n.) , OED carr, car (2) , HTOED , EDD car(r (sb.1), Dance ker, Bj. 142, de Vries kjarr, Mag. kjarr, Bj-L. kjerr, Orel *kerzan, EPNE kjarr