kentish | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

46 entries found.

variant spelling of even (adj.), now archaic or poetic. E'enamost "even almost" is recorded from 1735 in Kentish speech.

hin (pron.)

Old English hine, accusative of he; replaced by dative him in early Middle English. Cognate with German ihn. It is said to survive somewhat in southwest English and Kentish dialect.

shim (n.)

1723, a Kentish word of unknown origin. Originally a piece of iron fitted to a plow for scraping soil; meaning "thin slip of wood to fill up a space or raise a level" is from 1860.

soothsayer (n.)

mid-14c., zoþ ziggere (Kentish), "one who speaks truth,;" late 14c., sothseggere, "fortune-teller;" see sooth + say. Old English had soðsagu "act of speaking the truth."

lere (v.)

OE læran, Kentish leran "to teach" (cognate with Old Frisian lera, Old Saxon lerian, Dutch leeren, Old High German leran, German lehren "to teach"), literally "to make known;" see lore). From early 13c. as "to learn."

tire (v.1)

"to weary," also "to become weary," Old English teorian (Kentish tiorian) "to fail, cease; become weary; make weary, exhaust," of uncertain origin; according to Watkins possibly from Proto-Germanic *teuzon, from a suffixed form of PIE root *deu- (1) "to lack, be wanting." Related: Tired; tiring.

inlet (n.)

"narrow opening into a coast, arm of the sea," 1570s, said by old sources to be originally a Kentish term; a special use of Middle English inlate "passage or opening by which an enclosed place may be entered" (c. 1300), from inleten "to let in" (early 13c.), from in + let (v.).

mead (n.2)

"meadow," Middle English mede, from Old English mæd, Anglian and Kentish med "meadow, pasture," from Proto-Germanic *medwo (source also of Old Frisian mede, Dutch made, German Matte "meadow," Old English mæþ "harvest, crop"), from PIE *metwa- "a mown field," from root *me- (4) "to cut down grass or grain." Now only archaic or poetic.

wergeld (n.)

"set sum of money as the value of a free man, based on social rank, and paid as compensation for his murder or injury in discharge of punishment or vengeance," Old English wergeld (Anglian, Kentish), wergield (West Saxon), from wer "man" (see virile) + geld "payment, tribute" (see geld (n.)).

Kent

southeasternmost county of England, Old English Cent, Cent lond, Centrice, from Latin Cantia, Canticum (Caesar), Greek Kantion (Strabo, 51 B.C.E.), from an ancient British Celtic name often explained as "coastal district," or "corner-land, land on the edge," but possibly "land of the hosts or armies." Related: Kentish (Old English Centisc).

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