kindness

Etymology

It is formed from English kind + -ness,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English kindenesse.^[6][5] The adjective is from Old English gecynde (“natural, native, innate”), from a Germanic word built on the ancestor of kin, Proto-Germanic *kunja- (“family”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[4] Old English had a separate gecyndnes (“generation, nation, growing things”),^[2][4] which the OED derives from the noun meaning nature or kind, not from the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being kind, kind nature or conduct: about 1300, in Saint Patrick's Purgatory.^[2] Etymonline glosses the first use as "courtesy, noble deeds",^[4] and Dictionary.com dates the word 1250–1300.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective behind the word first described what is natural and then what shows natural feeling, and kindness keeps traces of that older range.^[4] Until the 19th century it could mean kinship and the natural affection that goes with it, and in the 15th to 17th centuries a natural aptitude;^[2][3] in Scots law it was a claim to land based on inheritance, especially the tenure of a kindly tenant.^[2][3] Kind deeds and kind feelings are recorded from the late 14th century.^[4][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "benevolence; beneficence; good will; favour; love",^[8] and to have a kindness for someone, to be fond of them, is now archaic in general use,^[2][5] but it was still alive in 19th-century Scots and in Devon.^[9] A disease that broke out in Scotland in 1580 was called the kindness, according to Moysie's memoirs.^[2] The SOED lists the phrases kill with kindness and milk of human kindness.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the quality of being kind.^[2]
• c. 1390 – fondness, affection, good will.^[2]
• c. 1390 – kinship, natural affection between relatives (obsolete by 1894).^[2]
• c. 1400 – a kind act, a favour.^[2]
• c. 1425 – natural inclination or aptitude (obsolete by 1674).^[2]
• 1522 – Scots law, a right to land based on descent.^[2]
• c. 1600 – name of an outbreak of disease in Scotland in 1580.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being kind; benevolence and consideration in conduct: She treated the stray dog with great kindness.^[5][10][2]
2. A kind act; a favour: I won't forget all your kindnesses to my family.^[5][10][2]
3. (archaic) A feeling of fondness or affection.^[5][2][3]
4. (Scots law) A right to a title or to land held through descent.^[2][3]
5. (obsolete, c. 1390–1894) Kinship, or natural affection arising from it.^[2][3]
6. (obsolete, c. 1425–1674) Natural inclination or aptitude.^[2][3]

Related words

• kind
• kin
• kindly
• lovingkindness

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt