kennen

Forms

kennen (irregular weak, third-person singular present kennt, past tense kannte, past participle gekannt, past subjunctive kennte, auxiliary haben)^[1] The past tense and participle kannte, gekannt have the vowel change of brennen; older and dialect German also has forms levelled to the present, kennte, gekennt or kennete, gekennet.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kennen, inherited from Old High German kennen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną (“to make known”).^[3][4][1] The same verb is Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌽 (kannjan, “to make known”), Old Norse kenna (“to make known, perceive, enjoy”), Old English cennan (“to declare, explain”), Old Frisian kenna, Old Saxon antkennian (“to recognise”) and Old Dutch kennan;^[3][4][5] Kluge also lists Dutch kennen, Swedish känna and Icelandic kenna.^[3] Its cognate English ken survives in Scots and English.^[1]

It is a causative in /-jan-/ formed from the singular present of the preterite-present verb that became können, Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to know, be able”), so that it first meant “to make known, cause to understand”.^[3][4][6][5] The causative took the vowel of the singular present, /a/, umlauted to /e/ by the following /j/.^[4][1] Behind the preterite-present verb lies Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”), the root of Latin nōscō (“to get to know”), Ancient Greek γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō) and Lithuanian žinóti (“to know”).^[7][1] Kluge notes that in continental Germanic the meanings of the base and of the causative grew alike and only later drew apart again.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The simple verb is hardly recorded in Old High German: the 8th-century texts have the prefixed bikennen and irkennen, and kennen itself is dated to the 9th century.^[3][4] The Grimms found only one trace of the simple verb in the glosses, unchennento “not recognising”, and in Old Saxon the Heliand has only antkennian.^[8] In Middle High German erkennen and bekennen still prevailed, but kennen “to know, recognise” occurs from Eilhart's Tristrant (1170–1190) on.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In Early New High German kennen came close to erkennen “recognise”, as in Luther's da er ihn kennete “when he recognised him”, and the sense “to tell apart” is still found in Goethe; both are now obsolete.^[2][10] Goethe also often used it for “to get to know”, and Swedish lära känna, Dutch leeren kennen and Danish lære at kende are modelled on German kennenlernen.^[2]

Kenner is recorded in the 16th century and has meant “connoisseur, expert” since the 18th, with kennerisch and Kennerblick in the 18th century;^[4][6][2] a 14th-century Central German kenner meant “begetter, one who recognises”.^[6] Kenntnis was formed in Middle High German from the participle, kenntlich appears in the 14th century beside the older kennelich, verkennen “to misjudge” in the 17th, Kennzeichen in the 16th and Kennwort in the 20th.^[4][6][2]

Timeline

• 8th century – The prefixed bikennen and irkennen are recorded.^[3][4]
• 9th century – Old High German kennen.^[3][4]
• 1170–1190 – Middle High German kennen in Eilhart's Tristrant.^[9]
• 14th century – kenntlich appears beside the older kennelich.^[6][2]
• 16th century – Kenner and Kennzeichen.^[4]
• 17th century – verkennen “to misjudge”.^[4][6]
• 18th century – Kenner comes to mean “expert”;^[2][4] Kennerblick.^[2][4]
• 20th century – Kennwort “password, code word”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To know, be familiar with someone or something from experience: Ich kenne diese Gegend seit meiner Kindheit.^[11][1]
2. To know someone as a person with particular qualities: So kenne ich ihn gar nicht.^[11]
3. To be acquainted with someone: Wir kennen uns vom Studium.^[11][12]
4. To understand or have command of something: Sie kennt ihr Handwerk.^[11]
5. To recognise, be able to identify again.^[11]
6. To be able to name or state: Kennst du den Namen dieser Blume?^[11]
7. To be aware of something, and (usually negated) to let one's actions be governed by it: kein Mitleid kennen, to show no pity.^[11]

Word family

• Kenner
• Kenntnis
• kenntlich
• bekennen
• erkennen
• anerkennen
• verkennen
• auskennen
• Kennzeichen
• kennzeichnen
• Kennwort
• Kennung

Related words

• können
• English ken

Usage notes

Sich vor Wut nicht mehr kennen means to be beside oneself with rage.^[11] Paul quotes Goethe's Kennst du mich für das? (Götz) for the older construction with für instead of als.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 486
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 430
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 532
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org