ken
pronunciation
How to pronounce ken in British English:
UK [ken]
How to pronounce ken in American English:
US [ken]
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- Noun:
- range of what one can know or understand
- the range of vision
Word Origin
- ken
- ken: [OE] Once a widespread verb throughout English, ken is now restricted largely to Scotland, having taken over the semantic territory elsewhere monopolized by know. In Old English it actually meant not ‘know’ but ‘make known’; it was the causative version of cunnan ‘know’ (ancestor of modern English can). Its relatives in other Germanic languages made the change from ‘make known’ to ‘know’ early – hence German kennen ‘know’, for example In the case of English ken, the impetus is thought to have come from Old Norse kenna ‘know’. The derived noun ken, as in ‘beyond one’s ken’, dates from the 16th century.=> can
- ken (v.)
- "to know," Scottish dialect, from Old English cennan "make known, declare, acknowledge" (in late Old English also "to know"), originally "make to know," causative of cunnan "to become acquainted with, to know" (see can (v.)). Cognate with German kennen, Danish kjende, Swedish känna. Related: Kenned; kenning.
- ken (n.2)
- "house where thieves meet," 1560s, vagabonds' slang, probably a shortening of kennel.
- ken (n.1)
- "range of sight," 1580s, a nautical abbreviation of kenning.
Example
- 1. Barcelona ken yet again slipped through the law 's fingers .
- 2. His second advantage is that he is not ken livingstone .
- 3. Over the past eleven years , ken has eluded an international dragnet .
- 4. More to the point , my mother always believed that ken was dead .
- 5. Physicist ken bergeron , speaking on march 12 during a press briefing .