Etymograph

English

kid

Kid comes from Middle English kide, from Old Norse kið ‘young goat’, from Proto-Germanic *kidją ‘goatling’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kidją1‘goatling’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kið1‘young goat’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kide1‘kid’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719kid1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English kid
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1719, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Cruso: “I went indeed intending to kill a Kid out…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kidjąWiktionary, English kid‘goatling’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kiðWiktionary, English kid‘young goat’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kideWiktionary, English kid‘kid’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719kidWiktionary, English kid. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1719, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Cruso: “I went indeed intending to kill a Kid out…”

The story

The sense of child has been in use since the 1590s as slang, and since the 1840s in informal use.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Explore everything descended from *kidją →

Another origin of kid

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kuddijāuncertain
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150*cydde‘pouch, belly’uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*kiddeuncertain
  4. Englishtodaykid

Possibly from Middle English *kidde, from Old English *cydde (‘pouch, belly’), from Proto-West Germanic *kuddijā, derived from or related to Proto-Germanic *kuddô (‘bag, sack, pod, shell, husk’).

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Today it means

noun A child, adolescent, or (loosely) a young adult.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “kid”. 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 / Proto-Germanic *kidją / kid