Word of the Day

Tuesday, October 09, 2001

ken

\KEN\ , noun;

Perception; understanding; knowledge.

The range of vision.

View; sight.

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Quotes:

He was to make several important discoveries, the most significant being that infantile paralysis was caused not by germs, as cerebrospinal meningitis had been, but by a mysterious agent just then emerging into the ken of science.

-- James Thomas Flexner, Maverick's Progress

So we are predisposed -- if not preprogrammed -- to accept tales of animals who display human motives, understanding, reason, and intentions. It takes a far greater imagination to conceive the possibility that a dog's mental life may assume a form that is simply beyond our ken.

-- Stephen Budiansky, If a Lion Could Talk

Libussa, the youngest, particularly beautiful, unworldly and serious, was able to see what was hidden from other people's ken and to prophesy.

-- Peter Demetz, Prague in Black and Gold

Origin:

Ken is from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan, "to declare, to make known."