Beaumont, Psyche, iv. 4.
Kindly. Nothing ethical was connoted in ‘kindly’ once; it was simply the adjective of ‘kind.’ But it is God’s ordinance that ‘kind’ should be ‘kindly,’ in our modern sense of the word as well; and thus the word has attained this meaning. See ‘Unkind.’
This Joon in the Gospel witnesseth that the kyndeli sone of God is maad man.—Wiclif, Prologe of John.
Forasmuch as his mind gave him, that, his nephews living, men would not reckon that he could have right to the realm, he thought therefore without delay to rid them, as though the killing of his kinsmen could amend his cause, and make him a kindly king.—Sir T. More, History of King Richard III.
The royal eagle is called in Greek Gnesios, as one would say, true and kindly, as descended from the gentle and right aëry of eagles.—Holland, Pliny, vol. i. p. 272.
Whatsoever as the Son of God He may do, it is kindly for Him as the Son of Man to save the sons of men.—Andrewes, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 253.
Where are they? Gone to their own place, to Judas their brother; and, as is most kindly, the sons, to the father, of wickedness, there to be plagued with him for ever.—Id., Of the Conspiracy of the Gowries, serm. 4.
What greater tyranny and usurpation over poor souls would he have than is now exercised, since the perjured prelates, the kindly brood of the Man of sin, have defiled and burdened our poor Church?—Jus Populi Vindicatum, 1665.
Knave. How many serving-lads must have been unfaithful and dishonest before ‘knave,’ which meant at first no more than boy, acquired the meaning which it has now! Note the same history in the German ‘Bube,’ ‘Dirne,’ ‘Schalk,’ and see ‘Varlet.’
If it is a knave child, sle ye him; if it is a womman, kepe ye.—Exodus i. 16. Wiclif.