kin

Pronunciation

• /kɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English kin, also kinne, kun and cun,^[2][3] inherited from Old English cynn (“family, race; kind, sort; nature”),^[4][5][6][3] from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“clan, family”).^[4][7][6] The Germanic word is also the source of Old Frisian kin, Old Saxon kunni, kunne (“sex, gender”), Old High German chunni, Old Norse kyn, kön and Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌹 (kuni, “family, race”).^[5][4][6][8] Kroonen explains it as a noun formed from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to be born”),^[7] the root of genus (“race, kind”), gignō (“to beget”) and Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”).^[5][6][3][9] It is thus a Germanic relative of genus, gender, general and gene,^[10][8] and closely related to kind and king,^[10][4] as well as to Kind (“child”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, a group of people descended from a common ancestor, a family or clan, and also a people, nation or tribe; the first record is in the Vespasian Psalter.^[5][11] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 725, and the Middle English kinn to about 1200, in the Ormulum, with earlier traces in the surname Kinne (1180) and in cinnes men (1129).^[6]

Semantic evolution

As with genus and γένος (génos), the Old English word had three main senses: race or stock, class or kind, and gender or sex.^[5][4] The last was lost in early Middle English, though it is the only sense of the word in modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish.^[5] The sense of a class or species of things died out by about 1500,^[11] and those of offspring, a generation and genealogy were also lost in Middle English or soon after.^[5] The sense of one's relatives taken together became the chief one;^[5] without an article it is now rare except in kith and kin.^[5] From about 1200 kin could also mean a single relative, a use now archaic,^[5] while the sense "the fact of being related", from 1548, is now rare.^[5][11] The adjective, related or akin, arose in the 1590s, partly as a shortening of akin;^[4][12] the OED's first example is from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 (1600).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as relation by blood or by marriage.^[13] In 18th-century thieves' cant one of the Kin was a fellow thief.^[14] In Scots and northern English dialect the word kept the senses "kindred" and "stock, race", as in the Scottish proverb A man canna bear a' his kin on his back (1737).^[15]

Timeline

• before 725 – Old English cynn, family, race, kind, nature.^[6]
• Old English – a group descended from a common ancestor; also one's relatives collectively.^[5]
• 1129 – in cinnes men, kinsmen.^[6]
• c. 1200 – kinn in the Ormulum; a single relative.^[6][5]
• 1540s – the legal phrase next of kin.^[4]
• 1548 – the fact of being related, kinship.^[5]
• 1597 – as an adjective, related, akin.^[12][4]
• 1725 – thieves' cant, one of the Kin, a thief.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. One's relatives or family taken together: She spent the holidays with her husband's kin.^[16][17][12]
2. A single relative: Is he any kin to you?^[16][12][5]
3. A group of people descended from a common ancestor; a clan or stock.^[12][5]
4. Organisms that are related genetically to others: the lion and its kin.^[16]
5. A class or group with similar characteristics.^[17]
6. next of kin: a person's closest relative or relatives.^[17][4]
7. (archaic) Lineage, birth or descent: a man of noble kin.^[12][5]

Adjective

1. Related by blood or belonging to the same family.^[16][17][12]
2. Similar in nature; akin: a fear kin to panic.^[16][17][12]

Word family

• kinless
• kinsfolk
• akin
• kindred
• kinfolk

Related words

• kind
• king
• genus
• gender
• gene
• genesis

Usage notes

In law, next of kin means blood relatives of the dead person and does not include the widow, who is provided for separately.^[4] A separate dialect noun kin, a crack or chap in the skin, is a northern variant of chine and has no connection with this word.^[5][12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins