GO DEEPERhistorical continuationestablished
Middle English · Middle English · family lineagekin / kyn / kun
race, people, tribe, family, relatives, ancestry, kind, or category
- SOUND
- Middle English kin survives as the modern spelling and pronunciation after competing medieval variants recede; no unsupported single dialect is treated as the sole donor.
- MEANING
- The broad race, people, family, ancestry, kind, and category field narrows in ordinary modern use toward relatives, common ancestry, and kindred relationship.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Middle English into modern English.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · Middle English Dictionary Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established — The form continuity and semantic inventories are directly documented; the edge does not assign every sense loss an invented exact date.
Kin — definition, etymology, and first known usesupportsKin noun senses, etymology, and first-known-use section
Documents the modern noun and adjective, direct Old English ancestry, and before-twelfth-century horizon.
ORIGINAL ↗Kin n. — Middle English DictionarycontextMED24246, Forms and senses 1–5
OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 1054 ↗Documents the medieval spelling and semantic range inherited into modern English.
ORIGINAL ↗