kenning

Meanings

Noun

• Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea.
• The range or extent of vision, especially at sea; a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
• As little as one can discriminate or recognize; a small portion, a little.
• A chalaza or tread of an egg (a spiral band attaching the yolk of the egg to the eggshell); a cicatricula.
• A metaphorical compound or phrase, used especially in Germanic poetry (Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way.
• A dry measure equivalent to half a bushel; a container with that capacity.

Verb

• Present participle of ken.

Origin

• From Middle English kenning, kening, from kennen + -ing. Kennen is derived from Old English cennan ("to make known, declare"), from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną ("to make known"), the causative form of *kunnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- ("to know"). Compare Danish kending ("acquaintance"), and see further at ken.
• From ken, from Middle English kennen ("to beget, conceive (offspring); to give birth to"), from Old English cennan, gecennan; see further at etymology 1.
• A , from kenna, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną ("to make known"); see further at etymology 1. Compare can, keen, ken.
• Origin unknown.