kin
pronunciation
How to pronounce kin in British English:
UK [kɪn]
How to pronounce kin in American English:
US [kɪn]
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- Noun:
- a person having kinship with another or others
- group of people related by blood or marriage
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- Adjective:
- related by blood
Word Origin
- kin
- kin: [OE] Kin is the central English member of the Germanic branch of a vast family of words that trace their ancestry back to the prehistoric Indo- European base *gen-, *gon-, *gn-, denoting ‘produce’ (the Latin branch has given English gender, general, generate, genital, nature, etc, the Greek branch gene, genetic, gonorrhoea, etc).Amongst the Germanic descendants of this base was *kun-, from which was derived the noun *kunjam, source of Swedish kön ‘sex’ and English kin ‘family’. Kindred [12] was formed from kin in early Middle English by adding the suffix -red ‘condition’ (as in hatred). Also closely related are kind and king.=> gender, gene, general, generate, genital, kind, kindred, king, nature
- kin (n.)
- c. 1200, from Old English cynn "family; race; kind, sort, rank; nature; gender, sex," from Proto-Germanic *kunjam "family" (cognates: Old Frisian kenn, Old Saxon kunni, Old Norse kyn, Old High German chunni "kin, race;" Danish and Swedish kön, Middle Dutch, Dutch kunne "sex, gender;" Gothic kuni "family, race," Old Norse kundr "son," German Kind "child"), from PIE *gene- "to produce" (see genus).
Example
- 1. His analysis showed that kin and patient agreed only 68 % of the time .
- 2. And ties of kin , clan or dialect ensure a high level of trust .
- 3. If next of kin ask to have a profile taken down , facebook will comply .
- 4. She also appealed to her friends and kin for help .
- 5. His latest study suggests there are moral rules that arose independently of those shaped by kin selection .