ODD COUPLE

Kith and kin, is an expression probably not used much these days, but it stuck in my mind because “kith” seemed like a funny word. It sounded like someone speaking with a lisp, and it only seemed to be spoken when it was palling around with kin.

Kin, on the other hand, popped up all over the place. It is a handy three letter word for crossword makers. It is part of the words kindred, kinship and akin. Now, “akin” also is another odd-looking word, at least to me.

So, what do these words mean? They are all related (which explains why kith and kin are linked together). Kin, as in kinship, refers to your relatives. Akin is used to refer to things or people who share similar traits or characteristics, in the same family, as it were.

Kindred is both noun and adjective. As noun it is essentially the same as “kin”, almost as if “kin” is an abbreviation of kindred. As an adjective it is like “akin” as it indicates a similarity of tastes, attitudes.

Kinship is the same as “relationship”. Get it? Relative…relation…kin, one and the same. Kinship originally indicated a direct blood tie, however, not just similarity in lifestyle or thought.

Kith broadened relationship to acquaintances, friends. At one time, it may have included all your countrymen. But “kith” has an interesting history. It once meant knowledge coming from a root shared with “uncouth”. The root is an Old English word, “cuth” which meant knowledge. That makes sense. Your kith are known to you, part of your knowledge.

Then the use of “cuth” died out leaving only its opposite, “uncuth” which became “uncouth” and means unsophisticated, crude. Again, there is logic here. If you are sophisticated, you have knowledge (the Greek root for wisdom is “soph”) which implies the connotation that you can move among well educated people and not stand out as not belonging.

(Side note: “couth” made a comeback as an antonym of “uncouth” when someone, years after couth had died its natural death, decided to deconstruct uncouth to create its opposite.)

Yet, the word “kith” does not carry the connotation of education. It is rather like a word lasso used to gather up what is in the general vicinity of you and your kin. Why not use “ken” (remind you of to reckon?) instead of kith?

Ken and kin make a nice neat pair, don’t you think? Ken means a range of perception or understanding, in other words, knowledge. Uh huh.

But “ken” originated as a nautical word to refer to distance perception, what your eye could see. I suggest your friends and acquaintances fit this definition.  I think “ken” could almost replace “kith” except for pesky connotations. Kith is associated with people and ken is less picky referring to just anything in sight.

One final note since I brought up the word “ken”. It is not linguistically linked to reckon which determines a judgment through mental calculation. But isn’t that what “ken” is doing? Oh, well, with this last bit of obfuscation I will close this discussion.

#EnglishLanguage #EnglishIdioms