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Ken
Definitions
- 1 A diminutive of the male given name Kenneth.
"The vote was 213-209 along party lines. Republican members of the House Ethics Committee – Michael Guest of Mississippi, Dave Joyce of Ohio, Andrew Garbarino of New York, John Rutherford of Florida and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota – voted present. GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado also voted present but he is not on the Ethics Committee."
- 2 A surname.
- 3 Kensington in London. colloquial, in-compounds
"Kensington High Street — better known as High Street Ken after the nearby tube — is dominated architecturally by […]"
- 1 Range of perception. uncountable
"I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken."
- 2 A house, especially a den of thieves. UK, regional, slang
"Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you."
- 3 Youth or children's group. Judaism
"Gilboa and Habonim Dror also run year-round programming, holding regional reunions (called kenim) up and down the state"
- 4 A Japanese unit of length equal to six shakus.
- 5 The tsurugi (type of sword).
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 the range of vision wordnet
- 7 Knowledge, perception, or sight. uncountable
"So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church."
- 8 range of what one can know or understand wordnet
- 9 Range of sight. uncountable
"At once as far as Angels kenn he views / The dismal Situation waste and wilde […]"
- 1 To give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life). obsolete
"To the soul this ghostly bread is the learning and the teaching and the understanding in the commandments of God, wherethrough the soul is kenned and lives."
- 2 To know, perceive or understand. Scotland, transitive
"It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one."
- 3 To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry. Scotland, obsolete
"'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gate, / He riſes on the toe:"
Etymology
From Middle English kennen (“to give birth, conceive, generate, beget; to develop (as a fetus), hatch out (of eggs); to sustain, nourish, nurture”), from Old English cennan (“to give birth, conceive, generate, beget”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannjan, from Proto-Germanic *kanjaną.
Northern English dialects and Scots language from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan (“make known, declare, acknowledge”) originally “to make known”, causative of cunnan (“to become acquainted with, to know”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną, causative of *kunnaną (“be able”), from which comes the verb can. Cognate with West Frisian kenne (“to know; recognise”), Dutch kennen (“to know”), German kennen (“to know, be acquainted with someone/something”), Norwegian Bokmål kjenne, Norwegian Nynorsk kjenna, Old Norse kenna (“to know, perceive”), Swedish känna (“to know, feel”), Danish kende (“to know”). See also: can, con.
From a nautical abbreviation of Middle English kenning, present participle of the verb kennen (“to make known, point out, reveal; to direct, instruct, teach; to know, perceive”).
Of unknown origin. Perhaps from kennel.
From Hebrew קֵן (qēn, “nest”).
From Japanese 間.
From Japanese 剣.
See also for "ken"
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