Saturday 24 June 2023

Kith, Kin And Kine

I found a website which explains that "kith" originally meant "familiar things," like one's own country. "Uncouth" was the opposite. Thus, "kith and kin" would mean "country and family." In Poul Anderson's Kith future history series, "Kith" has come to mean a particular, starfaring, people. In Poul and Karen Anderson's Roma Mater, Europeans at Midsummer:

"...asked welfare for kith and kine..."
-XIX, 1, p. 337.

Characters in Poul Anderson's Norse fantasies quote:

"Kine die, kinfolk die..."
-see here. (Scroll down.)

Maybe we have exhausted this line of enquiry?
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2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I also thought of the Scandinavian saying: "Bare is brotherless back." Which is also to be found in Anderson's stories.

Ad astra! Sean

25 June 2023 at 04:35
S.M. Stirling said...

In English, kith, kine and kin tend to be linked because of the alliteration, as well as the meanings.

25 June 2023 at 21:26

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