Etymologically
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kid

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Pronunciation

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

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