keen
pronunciation
How to pronounce keen in British English:
UK [kiːn]
How to pronounce keen in American English:
US [kiːn]
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- Noun:
- a funeral lament sung with loud wailing
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- Verb:
- express grief verbally
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- Adjective:
- having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
- intense or sharp
- very penetrating and clear and sharp in operation
- very good
- as physically painful as if caused by a sharp instrument
- having a sharp cutting edge or point
Word Origin
- keen
- keen: [OE] The ancestral meaning of keen is ‘brave’. That is what its German and Dutch relatives, kühn and koen, mean, and that is what keen itself meant in the Old English period. But this sense had died out by the 17th century, having been replaced by the meanings familiar today, such as ‘eager’ and ‘sharp’.
- keen (adj.)
- c. 1200, from Old English cene "bold brave," later "clever, wise," from Proto-Germanic *kan- "be able to" (see can). Original prehistoric senses seem to have been both "brave" and "skilled;" cognate with Old Norse kænn "skillful, wise," Middle Dutch coene "bold," Dutch koen, Old High German kuon "pugnacious, strong," German kühn "bold, daring." Sense of "eager" is from mid-14c. The meaning "sharp" is peculiar to English: of blades and edges early 13c., of sounds c. 1400, of eyesight c. 1720. A popular word of approval in teenager and student slang from c. 1900.
- keen (v.)
- "lament," 1811, from Irish caoinim "I weep, wail, lament," from Old Irish coinim "I wail." Related: Keened; keening. As a noun from 1830.
Example
- 1. Train yourself to be a keen listener and observer .
- 2. She has a keen eye for the striking quote .
- 3. Mr toibin writes in muscular prose and has a keen eye for detail .
- 4. Their long snouts give them a keen sense of smell , helping them to find insects .
- 5. Only a performer with a keen sense of timing could come up with events such as these .