K
ka, for quo’ (quoth, quotha); ‘Enamoured ka? mary sir say that againe’, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Merygreek); Peele, Old Wives Tale (ed. Dyce, 455); Penry, Mar-Prelate’s Epitome, 21 (EDD.). In prov. use in Durham, Cumberland, Suffolk (EDD.). Also, ko, ‘I feare him not, Ko she’, Roister Doister, iii. 3.
kaa me, kaa thee, i.e. do me a good turn, and I will do thee the same. Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (or 3) (Quicksilver); Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1 (Goldwire). So in Scotland they say ‘Kae me and I’ll kae thee’, in Northumberland ‘Kaa me, kaa thee’, or, ‘Kaa mee an aa’ll kaa thee’; ‘Ka me and I’ll ka thee, Serva me, servabo te’, Coles, Dict. (1679). See Nares. Cp. the phr. ‘Claw me, claw thee’ used in the same sense.
kad, to caw. Chapman, All Fools, iii. 1 (Valerio).
kails, keils, nine-pins; ‘A game called nine-pins, or keils’, B. Jonson, Chloridia (Antimasque). Du. kegel, a pin, kail.
kam, crooked, awry. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 304. Welsh cam, crooked; Irish cam (Dinneen). See [kim-kam].
karl hemp, the male hemp. Tusser, Husbandry, § 15. 24; also called churl hemp, Fitzherbert, Husb., § 146. 28. See [carl].
karne, a ‘kern’, a foot-soldier. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid ii, 8. Irish ceatharnach, a foot-soldier, deriv. of ceatharn, a band of fighting men (Dinneen). See [keteryng].
katexoken, for kat’exochēn, super-eminently. Massinger, Guardian, iii. 1. 7. Gk. κατ’ ἐξοχήν, by way of eminence.
keak, keke, to cackle as a goose; ‘The silver Gander keaking cried’, Phaer, Aeneid viii, 655; ‘Theves . . . had stolne Jupiter, had a gouse not a kekede’, Ascham, Toxoph. (ed. Arber, 130). Cp. Kek, kek!, the cry of the goose and duck, in Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 499.
kecksies, hemlocks, ‘kexes’. Hen. V, v. 2. 52 (printed kecksyes). See Dict. (s.v. Kex).
keech, a lump of congealed fat. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 55. In fig. use, ‘I wonder that such a Keech can . . . Take up the Rayes o’ th’ beneficiall Sun’, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 55; ‘Did not goodwife Keech the Butcher’s wife come in?’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 101. ‘Keech’ for a lump of chandler’s fat is in common prov. use in Warwickshire, the west Midlands, and Somerset (EDD.).
keel, to cool, to cool by skimming or otherwise. L. L. L. v. 2. 930; spelt kele, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 246, back; keele, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Keel, vb.3 1). ME. kelyn, to make cold, to wax cold (Prompt. EETS. 252, see note, no. 1184); OE. cēlan, deriv. of cōl, cool.
keep cut; See [cut] (3).
keep, heed, care. Phr. take thou no keep, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 85; Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 40. ME. tak keep, take heed (Chaucer, C. T. D. 431).
keight, caught. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 30; v. 6. 39.
keiser, emperor. Fletcher, Mad Lover, ii. 1 (Memnon); kesar, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 570; keysar, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 498. Du. keyser (Hexham); cp. G. Kaiser; L. Caesar.
keke; see [keak].
kell, the fatty membrane investing the intestines, the caul. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 35; a cocoon, an enveloping web, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Alken); Drayton, Pol. iii. 120; the film formed by gossamer-threads on the grass, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 54; Turbervile Hunting, 76. Cp. ‘kell’ in prov. use, meaning the caul, a cap of network, a film on the eye, &c. (EDD.). ME. kelle, ‘reticulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 246, see note, no. 1149).
kell, a kiln. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 51. A Suffolk form, see EDD. (s.v. Kiln, sb.1). Cp. [kill].
kemb, to comb. B. Jonson, Catiline, Act i, chorus, 31; Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, i. 7 (last line). In prov. use in Scotland, and in Yorks. and Lanc. (EDD.). ME. kembe, to comb (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2142); OE. cemban; camb, a comb.
kemlin, a large tub used in bread-making, salting meat, &c. Coles, Dict. (s.v. Kimnel); kemelin, Levins, Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. kymlyn, ‘or kelare’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, kemelyn (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3548). See [kimnel].
kempe, kemp, a warrior, champion. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 31; bk. vii, c. 8. OE. cempa; Med. L. campio (Ducange), from campus, field of battle; ME. kemp(e, a warrior, soldier (Wars Alex. 2216, 5499); OE. cempa, ‘miles’ (Matt. viii. 9, Rushworth MS.). See Schade (s.v. Camphjo).
ken, a house (Cant); ‘A boor’s ken’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Ferret). Hence also libkin or lib ken, stalling ken. See [bouzing-ken].
ken(n, to discern. Milton, P. L. i. 59; v. 265; xi. 396; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 101; range of vision, P. L. xi. 379; power or exercise of vision, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 111; hence, kenning, range of sight, the distance visible at sea, Chapman, Caesar and Pompey, v. 1 (Septimius); Kyd, Soliman, v. 2. 69.
kennet, a small dog for hunting. Pl. kenettys, Boke of St. Albans, fol. F iv, back; kennets, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretts; the whole passage is copied from the former). Anglo-F. kenette (Bozon), dimin. of kien (= F. chien).
Kent: phr. Kent or Christendom. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Turfe); ‘Sith the Saxon King, Never was Woolfe seene, many nor some, Nor in all Kent, nor in Christendome’ (i.e. nowhere), Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 153; the Glosse has: ‘It was wont to be an olde proverbe and common phrase. The original whereof was, for that most part of England in the reigne of King Ethelbert was christened, Kent onely except, which remayned long after in mysbeliefe and unchristened: so that Kent was counted no part of Christendome.’ Ray in his English Proverbs accepts this explanation (ed. Bohn, p. 206). According to Fuller’s opinion, ‘Neither in Kent nor Christendom’ meant, neither in Kent, which was first converted to Christendom, nor in any other part of our English Christendom (i.e. nowhere in England). Also, in Kent and Christendom (i.e. everywhere); ‘I am here in Kent and Christendom, Among the Muses, where I read and rhyme’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (ed. Bell, 218).
Kentish long-tails, a nickname applied to the natives of Kent. Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, p. 207). The story of the origin of the nickname is told by Fuller in his Worthies, Kent, under Kentish Long-tailes. See NED. (s.v. Long-tail, 2). Not only Kentish men but Englishmen in general were called ‘caudati per contumeliam’ by their French neighbours, see Ducange (s.v. Caudatus); cp. ‘ces Engloys couez’ (Chans. Norm.) in Moisy (s.v. Cue, p. 250).
kersen; see [cursen].
kerve, to carve as a sculptor; ‘Enstructed in painting or kervinge’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 8, § 1. ME. kerve (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 325). OE. ceorfan.
kest, pt. t. cast. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 15; Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 45; plotted, considered, id. i. 30. In gen. prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Cast, 2 (7)).
keteryng, a ‘cateran’, a Highland or Irish marauder; ‘A Scottishe keteryng’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 75; l. 218; ‘Irish keterynges’, ib., Against the Scottes, 83. See NED. (s.v. Cateran). See [karne].
ketler, an inexperienced gamester, a novice at gambling; Bunglers and ketlers’ [at gambling], Middleton, Black Book (ed. Dyce, v. 543).
ketling, inexperienced; ‘Like an old cunning bowler to fetch in a young ketling gamester’, Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales (ed. Dyce, v. 589). See NED. (s.v. Kitling, B).
key, a quay. Dryden, Annus Mirab. st. 231; Middleton, Women beware, i. 3. 17.
kibbo, a cudgel. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, iii. 1 (Scapin, in a Lancs. dialect). In Ray (ed. 1691. MS. Add.) ‘kibbo’ is given as a Cheshire word (EDD.).
kid, a faggot, small bundle of sticks; ‘Kydde, a fagotte’, Palsgrave; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 29. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north country to Essex, see EDD. (s.v. Kid, sb.2 1). ME. kydd, ‘fascis’ (Prompt. EETS. 247).
kid, a roebuck in its first year. Spelt kyde, Book of St. Albans, fol. E 4; Turbervile, Hunting, c. 45; p. 143.
kid, notorious; ‘The colonel was a cuckold, or a kid pirate’, Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, i. 1 (Fireball). ME. kid, renowned, famous, illustrious (Wars Alex., see Gl. Index); kyd, known (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1943), pp. of kythe, to make known (C. T. F. 748). OE. cȳðan.
kie, kye, cows. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Lorel). In gen. prov. use in the north for the plural of ‘cow’ (EDD.). OE. cȳ, pl. of cū, cow.
kiff, for kith, relationship, standing in relationship, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iv. 1 (Tim); Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 30.
kill, a kiln. Bible, Jer. xliii. 9; Nahum, iii. 14 (ed. 1611). A common prov. form in many parts of England—the north country, Essex, and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Kiln, sb.1). Hence kill-hole, Merry Wives, iv. 2. 59 (ed. 1623). Cp. [kell] (2).
kill-cow, a murderous fellow, butcher; a great fighter. Fletcher, Lover’s Progress, iii. 3 (Malfort); perhaps with reference to the story of Guy of Warwick. See Nares.
kimbo, resembling arms set a-kimbo, Dryden, tr. of Virgil; Pastorals, iii. 67; on kimbow, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Novel).
kim-kam, crooked, perverse. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid ii, 44. Cp. the Shropshire saying, ‘Let’s a none o’ your kim-kam ways’ (EDD.). See [kam].
kimnel, a tub used for brewing, kneading, or salting meat. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7 (Alexander); ‘A kimnel, cadus salsamentarius’, Coles, Dict., 1679; ‘kymnell, quevette’, Palsgrave. ME. kymnelle, ‘amula’ (Cath. Angl.).
kinchin mort, a very young female child (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). Kinchin is perhaps a corrupt form of G. kindchen, little child. See [mort] (2).
kinderkind, kilderkin, small barrel. Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 383). Du. kindekin, ‘the eighth part of a vat’ (Kilian). See NED. (s.v. Kilderkin), and Dict.
kindle, to give birth to young, bring forth. As You Like It, iii. 2. 358; ‘I kyndyll, as a she-hare or cony dothe’, Palsgrave. Very common in prov. use (EDD.). ME. hyndlyn, or brynge forthe yonge kyndelyngys, ‘feto’ (Prompt.).
kindless, unnatural. Hamlet, ii. 2. 609; Poole, David (ed. Dyce, p. 466).
Kirsome, Christian; ‘As I’m true Kirsome woman’, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7. 5. See [cursen].
kite, a term of detestation. Fletcher, Wit without Money, i. 1. 16; iii. 4. 16; Hen. V, ii. 1. 80; King Lear, i. 4. 284; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 89; Udall, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 83).
kiss the post, to be shut out of a house in consequence of arriving too late (there being nothing else to kiss but the doorpost); ‘Make haste, thou art best, for fear thou kiss the post’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 47.
kix, a ‘kex’, dried-up stalk; a term of abuse. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 2 (Mercury).
knacker, a harness-maker. Tusser, Husbandry, § 58. 5. In Lancashire knacker is a term for a tanner (EDD.).
knap, a knave, a rogue. Spelt knappe, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Dulipo); Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80. ‘A regular knap’, ‘a deead knap’ are Yorkshire expressions for a cunning knave, see EDD. (s.v. Knap, sb.2 1).
knap, a small hill, a mound, knoll. Bacon, Essay 45; a hill-top, Golding, Metam. xi. 339 (L. ‘vertice’). In prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England (EDD.). OE. cnæpp, top, hill-top (Luke iv. 29).
knap, to knock, rap, strike smartly; to sound or toll a bell. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80; also, to knock together, Bacon, Sylva, § 133.
knare, knar, a knot or protuberance on a tree; ‘Woods with knots and knares deformed’, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 536; spelt gnarre, Cockeram’s Dict. (1623). See EDD. (s.v. Gnarr, sb.1 1). Cp. ME. knarry, gnarled (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1977). Low G. knarre; Du. knar; see NED.
kned, pp. kneaded. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 1 (Savourwit). In prov. use in the north, and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Knead, 3).
knee-timber, crooked timber, used in shipbuilding. Bacon, Essay 13.
knight of the post, a notorious perjurer; one who gets his living by giving false evidence. Brome, Joviall Crew (Works, 1873, iii. 366); Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, i. 10. 37; Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (Courtine). [Cp. Pope, Prologue to the Satires of Horace, 365, ‘Knight of the post corrupt, or of the Shire.’] See Nares.
Knight’s Ward, one of the four prison-divisions or ‘sides’. There were usually but three such divisions, the Master’s side, the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole; See [counter] (3). When there were four, the Knight’s Ward came second. In Eastward Ho, v. 1 (or 2), Wolf says ‘the knight will i’ the Knight’s Ward’, meaning that he was too humble to go into the Master’s side. Also Knight-side, ‘Neither lie on the Knight-side, nor in the Twopenny Ward’, Webster, Appius, iii. 4 (Corbulo). And see Westward Ho, iii. 2 (Monopoly).
knill, knyll, to sound as a bell, ring. Morte Arthur, leaf 428*, back, 6; bk. xxi, c. 10; OE. cnyllan, to strike, ring a bell (B. T. Suppl.).
knitting-cup, a cup of wine drunk by the company immediately after a wedding. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 1 (Compass).
knokylbonyarde, a contemptible fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 485. Dyce’s note gives two other examples. Deriv. of knucklebone.
knot, a flower-bed. Lyly, Euphues, p. 37; Campaspe, iii. 4 (Apelles); Tusser. Husb. § 22. 22. In prov. use in Somerset, Dorset, and Devon, also in the west Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Knot, sb.1 13).
knot, the red-breasted sandpiper; ‘The knot that called was Canutus’ bird of old’, Drayton, Pol. xxv. 341; ‘Knotts, i, Canuti aves, ut opinor’, Camden, Brit. (ed. 1607, 408). Dan. knot, sandpiper (Larsen). In the north of Ireland the name for the ringed plover, see EDD. (s.v. Knot, sb.2).
knot-grass, a plant with small pale-pink flowers, Polygonum aviculare. An infusion of it was supposed to stunt one’s growth. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 329; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife).
knowledge, to acknowledge; ‘I knowlege my folly’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12, § 3; ‘My flight from prison I knowledge’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 150.
knub, a small bump. Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603); ‘knubbe, callum’, Levins, Manip. Low G. knubbe, a knob, lump; see NED.
knurre, a round knotty projection on a tree; ‘A knurre, bruscum, gibbus’, Levins, Manip.; hence, knurred (knurd), knotted, rugged, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 302. ‘Knurr’ is in common prov. use in the north country (EDD.).
ko; see [ka].
korke, to adorn, render illustrious; ‘Duke Lionell, that all this lyne [family of the White Rose] doth korke’, Mirror for Mag., Clarence, st. 6. From corke, the name of a purple dye, mentioned in Statutes of the Realm, Act 1 Richard III. c. 8, § 3, as a dye-stuff; see NED. (s.v. Cork, sb.2).
kost, pt. t. kissed. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 256. Cp. OE. coss, a kiss.
kreking, early dawn; ‘In the first krekyng of the day’ (F. au point du jour), Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 18. 1. Du. ‘het kriecken ofte aenbreken van den dagh, the creeke or the breaking of the day’ (Hexham). Cp. the Scottish phrase ‘creek of day’, day-break (EDD.). Norm. F. crique du jour (Moisy).
kursin, to christen. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 2. ‘Kursin’,’Kirsen’ are common forms of ‘christen’ in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Christen).
kydst, in Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 92, written incorrectly in the sense of ‘knewest’. ME. kithen (pt. s. kidde), means ‘to make known’. See [kid] (notorious).
kyrie, short for ‘kyrie eleison’ (κύριε ἐλέησον), Lord, have mercy upon us; the earliest and simplest form of Litany. Used humorously for a scolding, causing an outcry; ‘But he should have such a kyrie ere he went to bed’, Jack Juggler, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 138; ‘This kyrie sad solfing’ (translating Talia iactanti, Aeneid i, 102), Stanyhurst (ed. Arber, p. 21); kyry, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 755.
kyrsin, Christian. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii (Clay). See [cursen].