kid

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English kide,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse kið (“young goat”) or a similar Scandinavian word,^[4][3][2] from Proto-Germanic *kidjom,^[4] the source also of Old High German kizzi and German Kitze,^[4][3] a word of uncertain origin.^[4][5] The forms may imitate the cry of young goats and sheep,^[3][6] or a call to them.^[6] The Old English word for a young goat was ticcen.^[4] The verb “to tease” is probably from the noun, in the sense “to make a child or goat of”.^[3][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young goat: about 1200,^[4][8] probably before 1200 in the Ormulum.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The flesh of a young goat is from about 1430,^[8] and the leather made from its skin from 1677,^[8] hence kid gloves and, in the 19th century, to handle with kid gloves, “to treat tactfully”.^[9] The meaning “child” is perhaps from the 1590s, in the play The Old Law,^[4][3][8] and certainly by the 1680s, as in kidnap;^[4][9] it was slang, but established in informal use by about 1841.^[3][4] A young pugilist or expert young thief was a kid from 1812,^[8][4] as in Billy the Kid.^[4] Kid brother is by 1890,^[4] and kid stuff, “something easy”, from 1913.^[4] The verb meant “to coax, hoax” in thieves' cant from 1811, and “to tease playfully” from 1839.^[3][4] No kidding! is from 1914.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a young goat.^[4][8]
• c. 1430 – kid meat.^[8]
• 1599 – a child (slang).^[3][8]
• 1677 – kid leather.^[8]
• 1811 – verb, to hoax (thieves' cant).^[3]
• 1839 – verb, to tease.^[3]
• 1841 – a child (informal).^[3]
• 1890 – kid brother.^[4]
• 1914 – no kidding!.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (informal) A child or young person.
2. A young goat.
3. Soft leather made from the skin of a young goat; kidskin.

Verb

1. (informal) To tease or joke with someone; to deceive in fun.
2. Of a goat, to give birth.

Adjective

1. (informal) Younger: my kid sister.

Word family

• kidder
• kiddingly
• kiddish
• kiddishness
• kidlike
• kiddo
• kiddy
• kidskin

Related words

• kidnap
• kiddie

Usage notes

Several unrelated words are spelled kid: a bundle of brushwood or gorse for burning, from before 1350, now dialect,^[8][10] and a small wooden tub, especially a sailor's mess tub, from 1769, perhaps a variant of kit.^[8][5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press