ken
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɛn/
ipa: /kɪn/
rhymes: -ɛn
homophone: Ken
homophone: kin (pin–pen merger)
Etymology: From a nautical abbreviation of Middle English kenning, present participle of the verb kennen (“to make known, point out, reveal; to direct, instruct, teach; to know, perceive”).
Senses: examples: text: I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken.
ref: 1909, Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer Chapter 1
glosses: Range of perception.
examples: text: So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church.
ref: 1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church-governement is Prescrib’d in the Gospell, and that to Say Otherwise is Unsound”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 4:
text: Within our ken / The Nightingale—ah! Love, the Nightingale! / Her tender sweetness made our cheeks grow pale,
ref: 1913, Louise Jopling, Poems:
text: These people, these 20 or 25, were in my ken. Senator Jenner. In his what? Mr. Greenglass. My ken, my line of vision, my knowledge.
ref: 1957, United States Congressional serial set, number 11976:
text: On this occasion, I wrote to them: "Two more modest and deserving people than you are not in our ken; and it is but fitting that you receive this, preservation's most prestigious prize, for your selfless devotion to the cause through the years.
ref: 1977, Roulhac Toledano, Sally Kittredge Evans, The Esplanade Ridge:
text: Though he was out in the streets and away from the Firm and the Firm's ken, though he had work to do and action to relieve him, he was angry.
ref: 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
text: Since nothing in our ken differentiates knowledge from luck, something beyond our ken is introduced to do so. But the conviction that we know something is small comfort when coupled with the realization that we cannot tell what.
ref: 1999, Catherine Z. Elgin, Considered Judgment:
text: I couldn't see the funny side myself, but Tristan could; after a while he could hardly control his merriment, in fact, so that he collapsed back on the bed, continuing to chortle, more of his rather unpleasant teeth making an unwelcome appearance in my ken.
ref: 2012, Keith McCarthy, Nor All Your Tears:
text: It was an intelligence beyond human ken but integral to everything, perhaps most like the Great Tao of Eastern philosophy of the same period, and it flowed like a European form of Chinese chi.
ref: 2015, Brian Bates, The Real Middle Earth:
glosses: Knowledge, perception, or sight.
examples: text: At once as far as Angels kenn he views / The dismal Situation waste and wilde […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 59-60:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Range of sight.
Coordinate terms: sense: nautical range of sight
word: offing
Derived terms: kenlore
kennetic