ken
Range of perception.
Noun
- Range of perception.
- I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken. - 1909, Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer Chapter 1
- Knowledge, perception, or sight.
- So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church. - 1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church-governement is...
- Within our ken / The Nightingale—ah! Love, the Nightingale! / Her tender sweetness made our cheeks grow pale, - 1913, Louise Jopling, Poems:
- These people, these 20 or 25, were in my ken. Senator Jenner. In his what? Mr. Greenglass. My ken, my line of vision, my knowledge. - 1957, United States Congressional serial set, number 11976:
- Range of sight.
- At once as far as Angels kenn he views / The dismal Situation waste and wilde […] - 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by...
Origin
From a nautical abbreviation of Middle English kenning, present participle of the verb kennen (“to make known, point out, reveal; to direct, instruct, teach; to know, perceive”).
Derived
Noun Judaism
- Youth or children's group.
- Gilboa and Habonim Dror also run year-round programming, holding regional reunions (called kenim) up and down the state - 2016 January 15, Dan Pine, “Hike, swim, fix the world: Kids mix it up at Gilboa camp”, in The...
- Gavriella: At an annual movement conference. I went for the first time, and we proposed creating new kenim [branches] and it was approved, which is amazing! - 2018 October 6, Meital Shapiro, “What It's Like to Be a...
- At the beginning of 1944 he was sent to Debreccen to operate the local ken and to organize self-defense. - 2007, David Gur, דוד גור, Eli Netser, Brothers for Resistance and Rescue, page 87:
Origin
From Hebrew קֵן (qēn, “nest”).
Forms
Noun UK, regional
- A house, especially a den of thieves.
- Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you. - 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring...
- Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans. Egad, you carry a bene blink aloft. Come to the ken alone—no! my blowen; did not I tell you I should bring a pater...
- Up she goes to any likely ken, where she knows there are women that are married or expect to get married, and commences begging. - 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 351:
Origin
Of unknown origin. Perhaps from kennel.
Forms
Derived
boozing ken bousing ken dossing-ken dunniken dunny-ken flatty-ken gentry cove's ken grubbing ken padding-ken queer ken stauling-ken wapping ken
Noun Entry 4
- The tsurugi (type of sword).
Origin
Etymology tree Japanese 剣bor. English ken Borrowed from Japanese 剣.
Forms
Related
Noun Entry 5
- A Japanese unit of length equal to six shakus.
Origin
Etymology tree Japanese 間bor. English ken Borrowed from Japanese 間.
Forms
Verb Scotland, transitive
- To know, perceive or understand.
- It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one. - 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- Johnny: Is your name Maggie? / Maggie: How'd you ken that? / Johnny: It's just a hunch. Are you looking for the, uh, petulant dwarf? - 1993, Mike Leigh, Naked (motion picture):
- Ah thought he wis being harsh, flippant and show-oafy, until ah got sae far in. Now ah ken precisely what the cunt meant. - 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 6:
- To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
- 'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gate, / He riſes on the toe: - c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
- I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off. - 1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's...
- We ken them from afar. - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 60:
Origin
Northern English dialects and Scots language from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan (“make known, declare, acknowledge”) originally “to make known”, causative of cunnan (“to become acquainted with, to know”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną, causative of *kunnaną (“be able”), from which comes the verb can. Cognate with West Frisian kenne (“to know; recognise”), Dutch kennen (“to know”), German kennen (“to know, be acquainted with someone/something”), Norwegian Bokmål kjenne, Norwegian Nynorsk kjenna, Old Norse kenna (“to know, perceive”), Swedish känna (“to know, feel”), Danish kende (“to know”). See also: can, con.
Forms
Related
Derived
beken foreken kenned kenner kenning misken miskenning outken underken unken unkenned unkenning
Verb obsolete
- To give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life).
- To the soul this ghostly bread is the learning and the teaching and the understanding in the commandments of God, wherethrough the soul is kenned and lives. - 1524, Desiderius Erasmus, translated by Margaret Roper, A...
Origin
From Middle English kennen (“to give birth, conceive, generate, beget; to develop (as a fetus), hatch out (of eggs); to sustain, nourish, nurture”), from Old English cennan (“to give birth, conceive, generate, beget”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannjan, from Proto-Germanic *kanjaną.