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START / NODE 1047Present-Day Englishbefore the 12th century–today
king
An inherited English title continuing Old English cyning and reconstructed Germanic *kuninga-, a formation built on the Germanic kin or lineage base.
“King is a kin-word, not a member of the Latin rēx, royal, and regal family—and the viral gloss “leader of the kin” is more specific than the evidence permits.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishking
a monarch; by extension a preeminent person, game piece, card, or crowned checker
↑GO DEEPER
Middle English · Middle Englishking / kyngking or monarch
- SOUND CHANGE
- The Middle English spelling king survives into Present-Day English; later phonetic and orthographic standardization is not compressed into one unsupported sound law.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The monarch sense continues while preeminence, chess, card, checkers, and verbal extensions accumulate.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · Middle English Dictionary Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established — The modern semantic branches are documented; this edge does not assign each branch an invented exact date.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Middle English into modern English.
2 CITATIONSKing — definition, etymology, and first known useKing: senses, etymology, and first-known-use section King n. — Middle English DictionaryEntry forms and sense 1a AUDIT CANONICAL EDGE 1044 ↗
Documents the inherited headword, modern senses, and before-twelfth-century written horizon.
ORIGINAL ↗Documents medieval king forms and the monarch sense.
ORIGINAL ↗THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
Crossing into a starred form changes the evidence class. The interface marks that crossing, preserves confidence, and never manufactures the next root to make the picture look complete.