kite

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English kite, also kyte and kete,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”).^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} Wiktionary takes the Old English word from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, a diminutive of *kūt (“bird of prey”).^[1] Most dictionaries think it probably imitative of the bird's cry,^{[11][8][12][3]} and compare Middle High German kūze (“owl”), now German Kauz (“screech owl”),^{[3][10][9][12][13]} and Middle Low German kūten (“to chatter”), the source of Köter (“cur”).^[3][10] Etymonline and Klein also compare cīegan (“to call”),^[11][10] and Merriam-Webster adds Old Norse kȳta (“to quarrel”) and Lithuanian gausti (“to sound, drone”);^[9] Klein traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *gou- (“to shout, cry”).^[10] The OED, by contrast, finds no related word in the other Germanic languages, and Weekley also gives it no known cognates.^[6][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bird of prey, the kite: the Old English word glosses Latin milvus and būteō in the glossaries, first in the Corpus Glossary, before 800.^[6][3][5] Bosworth-Toller and Klein also give it the sense "bittern".^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the bird was kete (probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder) and kite (probably before 1325);^[3] Chaucer has kyte six times.^[2] Its reputation as a robber made it a figure for a person who preys on others, from Udall's Ralph Roister Doister (before 1556),^[6][15][11] and Johnson (1755) still described it as "a bird of prey that infests the farms, and steals the chickens".^[16] The toy, a light frame covered with paper or cloth and flown on a string, was named after the bird because it hovers in the air in the same way; it is first recorded in Samuel Butler's Hudibras (1664).^{[6][3][11][17][12]} Weekley compares the toy's names in other languages, German Drachen (“dragon”) and French cerf-volant.^[14] In commercial slang, with a jocular allusion to the paper kite, a kite was from 1805 a bill of exchange that represented no real transaction and was used to raise money, and to fly a kite was to raise money in this way;^[6][3][11] the verb, to issue such paper or later to write a cheque against funds one does not have, is American English from 1839.^[11][3][6] From 1831 to fly a kite also meant to test which way opinion was blowing with a proposal.^[6][14] Criminals called a smuggled letter or message a kite from 1859,^[6] and service slang called an aeroplane one from 1909.^[6][18] The highest, light-weather sails of a ship were kites from 1856.^[6][18] The dismissive go fly a kite is recorded by 1942 in American English, probably after the song of that name sung by Bing Crosby in The Star Maker (1939).^[11] In dialect, the purple orchis was called kite's legs and the spotted orchis kite-pan.^[19]

Timeline

• before 800 – the bird, in the Corpus Glossary.^[6][3]
• before 1300 – Middle English kete, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[3]
• before 1556 – a person who preys on others.^[6][15]
• 1611 – with qualifying words, other birds of the group.^[6]
• 1664 – the toy, in Butler's Hudibras.^[6][3]
• 1805 – a bill of exchange representing no real transaction, and to fly a kite, to raise money with such bills.^[6][3][11]
• 1831 – to fly a kite, to test opinion.^[6]
• 1839 – verb, to turn into a kite bill; later, to write a bad cheque.^[6][11][9]
• 1854 – verb, to fly or glide like a kite; to move quickly.^[6]
• 1856 – the highest sails of a ship.^[6]
• 1859 – in criminals' slang, a smuggled letter or message.^[6]
• 1909 – slang, an aeroplane.^[6]
• 1927 – slang, a bad or forged cheque.^[6]
• 1942 – go fly a kite.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various hawks with long narrow wings and a forked tail, noted for gliding and soaring flight, such as the red kite.^[9][18][6]
2. A light frame covered with paper, cloth or plastic, flown in the wind at the end of a long string.^[18][6]
3. (commerce) A bill of exchange or cheque that is not backed by funds, used to raise money or credit.^[18][6]
4. (nautical) Any of the light sails set above or beside the working sails in a light wind.^[18][6]
5. (British slang) An aeroplane.^[18][6]
6. (slang) A letter or message smuggled into, out of or within a prison.^[6]
7. (archaic) A person who preys on others; a sharper.^[18][6]
8. fly a kite: to put forward an idea in order to test opinion.^[6][14]

Verb

1. To obtain money or credit with kites; especially, to write cheques against a bank balance that is not there, by moving money between accounts.^[9][6]
2. To move quickly and lightly; to glide or soar like a kite: The gull kited over the harbour.^[9][6]

Word family

• kitelike
• kiter
• hellkite
• kiteflying
• kytoon
• kiting
• Brahminy kite
• snail kite

Usage notes

In Scots and northern English dialect kite or kyte is also the stomach or belly;^[19] Dictionary.com dates this from 1530–40 and suggests a Scandinavian source.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b 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)