Word of the Day Archive
Sunday August 29, 2010
kith \KITH\
, noun:
Acquaintances, friends, neighbors, or the like; persons living in the same general locality and forming a more or less cohesive group.
Charles 0. Brockway is unquestionably the foremost forger of America and the equal of any of his kith across the water.
-- De Francias Folsom, Our police: A history of the Baltimore force
While the men were at the funeral of my dear Shekure's father, the women, kith and kin, spouses and friends, gathered in the house and shed their tears, and I, too, beat my chest in mourning and wept with them.
-- Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red
Kith finds its origin in the Old English cunnan, "to know." Can and other English words stem from the same source.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for kith