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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

kith and kin en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English kith and kynne. Literally, friends (“kith”) and family (“kin”).

Meanings

  1. (plural, plural-only) Both friends and family.
    • From that time for many years I was regarded as an outcast and renegade iby my own kith and kin, as much so as if I had renounced Christianity altogether and become a Mohammedan or a Hindoo. 1904, Henry Roe, Memoir of The Rev. Archibald Campbell Scarth, Stevens & Price, printers, →OCLC, →OL, page 16:
    • And ſyne ſhe kiſſd his bluidy cheik And fyne his bluidy chin: O better I loe my Gill Morice Than a' my kith and kin! "Away, away, ze ill woman, And an il deith mait ze dee: Gin I had kend he'd bin zour ſon, He'd neir bin flain for mee." 1796, Scotish Songs In Two Volumes, →OL, page 164:
    • Grace made a lovely bride, surrounded by all her own and Harold's kith and kin. 1905, Martha Finley, Elsie and Her Namesakes, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 55:
    • I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. 1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter I (Mr. Sherlock Holmes), page 2:
    • Also he held me dear as the widowed maid to whom his friend was to have been wed, and he could never forgive himself if fresh woe came upon me through him or his kith and kin. 1893, Georg Ebers, Margery. (Gred): A Tale of Old Nuremberg, Appleton, →OCLC, →OL, page 65:
    • No—impossible! It was easier to appeal to kith and kin, after all, than to a stranger like this. 1875, Bertha De Jongh, Loving And Loth. A Novel, →OCLC, page 84:
    • "What's that to me, boy?" she interrupted with a stern, hard manner, which Joe hitherto had had no idea she could assume. "Didn't her kith and kin rob thee, beat thee, starve thee, and force thee to run away ? Is she not the child of her mother, and what could I do with one trained in the wickedness of vagrant ways?" 1800, Silverpen, The Little Museum Keepers, Willam and Robert Chambers, →OL, page 119:
    • Brothers and sisters, I am not speaking, I assure you, simply from a thought for our own kith and kin, for the Jewish people residing in Russia. 1905, Hermann Gollancz, Russia And The Alien Question, Wertheimer, Lea, →OCLC, →OL, page 5:
    • Yet, with all this, in two or three days he grew dull, and would fain mix with his kith and kin once more. 1869, Lucy Aikin, Evenings at home [by J. Aikin and A.L. Barbauld] in words of one syllable by Mary Godolphin, page 40:
    • In searching for material to build this book around the family of Captain James Leeper and Susan Drake, the first couple married in old Fort Nashborough, 1780, and their kith and kin, records were found also of other families allied to other descendants of these early settlers in Nashville, Tennessee, than the writer’s posterity, for whom this book was primarily intended. These records have been included. 1946, Nell McNish Gambill, The Kith And Kin Of Captain James Leeper And Susan Drake, His Wife, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL:
    • It well may be because I have been so lonelv, but to mv thinking there can be no love, no tie, like love and tie of kith and kin. 1868, Caroline Sheridan Norton, Old Sir Douglas, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 161:
    • Surely all those abominable rebels must see that their obstinacy and treachery redounds upon their own kith and kin. 1916, Baroness Orczy, Leatherface: A Tale of Old Flanders:

Relateds

kith and kine

Translations (26)

bn কুটুম খেশ (both friends and family) · ar آل (both friends and family) · gl familiares e amigos (both friends and family) · fr proches (both friends and family) · yue 親朋戚友 /亲朋戚友 (both friends and family) · cmn 親友 /亲友 (both friends and family) · fi perhe ja ystävät (both friends and family) · enm kith and kynne (both friends and family) · yi קינד־און־קייט (both friends and family) · hu pereputty (both friends and family) · gl íntimos (both friends and family) · es parientes y amigos, allegados (both friends and family) · nl bloed- en zielverwanten (both friends and family) · hu barátok és rokonság (both friends and family) · hy ազգուտակ (both friends and family) · da slægt og venner (both friends and family) · ru родны́е и бли́зкие (both friends and family) · cmn 親朋好友 /亲朋好友 (both friends and family) · pl krewni i znajomi (both friends and family) · sv nära och kära (both friends and family) · gv caarjyn as mooinjer (both friends and family) · scn parenti e amici (both friends and family) · sv släkt och vänner (both friends and family) · hu retyerutya (both friends and family) · gl achegados (both friends and family) · de Freunde und Familie (both friends and family)