Etymograph

English

kenning

Kenning comes from Middle English kenning.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kenning1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1624kenning1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English kenning
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1624, Richard Grenville, Sir Richard Grenuills Voyage to Virginia, for Sir Walter Ral: “Touching the moſt remarkeable things of the Country and…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kenningWiktionary, English kenning
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1624kenningWiktionary, English kenning. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1624, Richard Grenville, Sir Richard Grenuills Voyage to Virginia, for Sir Walter Ral: “Touching the moſt remarkeable things of the Country and…”

Equivalent to ken + -ing

Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- ‘to know’

…

Proto-West Germanic *kannijan ‘to know, be aware of’

Old English cunnan ‘to become acquainted with, to know’

Old English cennan ‘make known, declare, acknowledge’

Middle English kennen ‘to make known’

English ken

The story

Kennen is derived from Old English cennan (‘to make known, declare’), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną (‘to make known’), the causative form of *kunnaną (‘to know, be familiar with, recognize; to be able to, know how’), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (‘to know’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Middle English kenning

Another origin of kenning

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵneh₃-‘to know’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵn̥néh₃ti‘to know, recognize’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kunnaną‘to know’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kannijaną‘to make known’reconstructed
  5. Old Norsec. 800–1350kenna‘to know’
  6. Old Norsec. 800–1350kenning
  7. Englishtodaykenning

A learned borrowing from Old Norse kenning, from kenna (‘to know; to perceive’), from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną (‘to make known’); see further at etymology 1.

Today it means

noun Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “kenning”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English kenning / kenning

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