kindred

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English kinrede, also kinreden and kunrede,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English cynrēde, recorded in late Old English in Eadwine's Canterbury Psalter.^[2][6] The OED takes it as probably formed from Old English cynn + -rǣden, from kin and the suffix -red,^[7][4][3] which goes back to rǣden (“condition, rule, reckoning”),^[6][5][8] related to rǣdan (“to advise, rule, guess, read”), the source of read.^[5][4][3] The same suffix is in hatred.^[4][9][8] The OED adds that the earliest forms show a surprisingly early reduction of the suffix, and that some may instead be an alteration of cynren (“family line, progeny”).^[7] The first -d- is not etymological.^[10][9] It is usually explained as a d that grew up between n and r, as in thunder,^{[11][12][13][3]} perhaps helped by the influence of kind;^[7][10][3] the OED finds spellings such as kindreden from early Middle English, but Barnhart says the modern spelling became common only in the 17th century.^[7][3] The adjective is from the noun.^[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relationship by blood, descent or marriage, and also a person's relatives as a group: both in late Old English, the first in a royal charter of William I and the second in the Arundel Psalter.^[7] Barnhart dates the Middle English kinrede to probably before 1200,^[3] and Etymonline to about 1200.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English kindred covered much the same ground as kin: kinship, one's relatives, a generation, a clan or tribe, offspring and descendants, and lineage, sometimes noble birth.^[7][10] Chaucer used kynrede 25 times, for kindred, family and ancestry.^[14][15] Some of these senses died out: "a generation" after 1530, "genealogy, pedigree" after 1605, and "a single relative" after 1728.^[7] The adjective appeared in 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwit, with the sense "of a similar nature, related", and in 1530 began to mean "related by birth".^[7][3] William Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man (1528) has the first figurative sense of the noun, likeness of character or origin,^[7] the idea behind the phrase kindred spirit.^[16][5] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "congenial; related; cognate", quoting Dryden's "kindred skies".^[17]

Timeline

• late Old English – relationship by blood or marriage; one's relatives collectively.^[7]
• late Old English – a generation (obsolete after 1530).^[7][2]
• c. 1200 – family, race, stock; lineage.^[7][10]
• before 1225 – a clan or tribe of common descent.^[7]
• 1340 – adjective, of similar nature or origin.^[7]
• c. 1350 – the descendants of an ancestor.^[7]
• before 1450 – a single relative (obsolete by 1728).^[7]
• 1528 – figurative, similarity of character or qualities.^[7]
• 1530 – adjective, related by birth or descent.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. One's relatives as a group; family, kin: All her kindred came to the funeral.^[16][5][7]
2. Relationship by blood or marriage; kinship.^[16][7]
3. Likeness of character, origin or qualities; affinity.^[16][7]
4. A group of people of common descent, such as a clan or tribe.^[5][7]

Adjective

1. Alike in nature or character; akin: cooking, baking and kindred skills.^[16][5][7]
2. Related by blood or marriage.^[16][7]
3. kindred spirit: a person who shares one's tastes or outlook.^[16][5]

Word family

• kindredness
• kindredless
• kindredship

Related words

• kin
• kind
• hatred
• read
• -red

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.