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.