{"id":7000,"date":"2025-06-20T23:20:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T23:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7000"},"modified":"2025-06-20T23:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T23:23:08","slug":"word-of-the-day-ken-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2025\/06\/20\/word-of-the-day-ken-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Ken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the Word Guru daily email, is ken<\/em>. Ken<\/em>, pronounced \/ k\u025bn \/ (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/ken<\/a>), can be used either as a noun or a verb. As a noun, it means \u201cknowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception\u201d or \u201crange of sight or vision\u201d (ibid.). As a verb, it is chiefly used in Scotland and Northern England, where it means \u201cto know, have knowledge of or about, or be acquainted with,\u201d or \u201cto understand or perceive,\u201d or, in Scottish law, \u201cto acknowledge as heir; recognize by a judicial act,\u201d or, in British dialect, archaic, \u201cto declare, acknowledge, or confess\u201d or \u201cto teach, direct, or guide\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymonline.com says that it is \u201ca word surviving mainly in Scottish and northern England dialect, from Middle English kennen<\/em>, \u2018make known; give instruction to; be aware, know, have knowledge of, know how to; recognize by sight; see, catch sight of,\u2019 a very common verb, from Old English cennan<\/em> \u2018make known, declare, acknowledge\u2019 (in late Old English also \u2018to know\u2019), originally \u2018cause to know, make to know,\u2019 causative of cunnan<\/em> \u2018to become acquainted with, to know\u2019 (see can<\/strong><\/a> (v.)). Cognate with German kennen<\/em>, Danish kjende<\/em>, Swedish k\u00e4nna<\/em>. Related: Kenned<\/em>; kenning<\/strong><\/a>\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/ken<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it says that cennan<\/em> was the causative of cunnan<\/em>, you might wonder what a causative verb is. \u201cCausative verbs or causatives are verbs used to indicate that an individual causes another person to do something for another one. In other words, someone or something is indirectly responsible for a specific action in the form of verb used\u201d (https:\/\/grammarist.com\/grammar\/causative-verbs\/<\/a>). \u201cAll languages have ways to express causation but differ in the means. Most, if not all, languages have specific or lexical<\/em> causative forms (such as English rise<\/em> \u2192 raise<\/em>, lie<\/em> \u2192 lay<\/em>, sit<\/em> \u2192 set<\/em>). Some languages also have morphological<\/a> devices (such as inflection<\/a>) that change verbs into their causative forms or change adjectives into verbs of becoming<\/em>. Other languages employ periphrasis<\/a>, with control verbs<\/a>, idiomatic expressions or auxiliary verbs<\/a>. There tends to be a link between how \u2018compact\u2019 a causative device is and its semantic meaning\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Causative<\/a>). \u201cThere are several causative verbs in English, each with its own usage and meaning. The most common causative verbs include make, have, get, let<\/em>, and help<\/em>\u201d (https:\/\/englishgrammarzone.com\/causative-verbs-in-english-explained\/<\/a>). So, in other words, we have some causative verbs that go way back to Old English, but the modern English way to make a causative verb is with an auxiliary. But in Old English, cennan<\/em> was the causative form of cunnan<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might have recognized the word kenning<\/em> in the Etymonline.com quote if, that is, you remember reading Beowulf <\/em>in high school or college. Perhaps you remember that a kenning in Old English poetry was a little simile that was almost like a riddle. For instance, in Beowulf<\/em> a \u201cswan-road\u201d is the ocean. The body is a \u201cbone house.\u201d And this word kenning<\/em> is related to the verb ken<\/em>. In English, kenning does not appear until \u201c1871, a modern learned word from Old Norse kenning<\/em> in a special sense \u2018poetical periphrasis or descriptive name\u2019 (it also meant \u2018teaching, doctrine; preaching; mark of recognition\u2019), from kenna<\/em> \u2018to know, to recognize, to feel or perceive; to call, to name (in a formal poetic metaphor),\u2019 from PIE root *gno-<\/strong><\/a> \u2018to know.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019In the whole poem of Beowulf there are scarcely half a dozen of them [similes], and these of the simplest character, such as comparing a ship to a bird. Indeed, such a simple comparison as this is almost equivalent to the more usual \u201ckenning<\/em>\u201d (as it is called in Icelandic), such as \u201cbrimfugol,\u201d where, instead of comparing the ship to a bird, the poet simply calls it a sea-bird, preferring the direct assertion to the indirect comparison. [Henry Sweet, “Sketches of the History of Anglo-Saxon Poetry,” London, 1871]\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=kenning<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s news there was quite the interesting story from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Here\u2019s the story from the AP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 A young female bear caused a stir after wandering out of the forest and into the leafy suburbs of the Lithuanian capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor two days, the brown bear ambled through the neighborhoods of Vilnius, trotted across highways and explored backyards \u2014 all while being chased by onlookers with smartphones and, eventually, drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government then issued a permit for the bear to be shot and killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat did not go down well with Lithuania’s hunters who refused, aware that there is only a tiny number of the protected species in the entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Lithuanian Association of Hunters and Fishermen said it was shocked by the government order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe association’s administrator, Ramut\u0117 Juknyt\u0117, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the bear was a beautiful young female who was about 2 years old and did not deserve to be shot. \u2018She was scared but not aggressive. She just didn\u2019t know how to escape the city but she didn\u2019t do anything bad,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe organization tracks the movements of bears. It believes there is only five to 10 bears in the Baltic nation, but does not have a precise number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe drama began on Saturday when the bear entered the capital. It was the first time in many years that a bear had entered the city and it became a national story. The animal came within about 4-5 kilometers (about 2-3 miles) of the city center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince causing a stir with their permit to kill the bear, Lithuanian authorities have been on the defensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Environment Minister Ram\u016bnas Krugelis said that a kill permit was issued purely as a precaution in case the bear posed a threat, according to a report by the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hunters proposed a more humane approach: sedation, tracking and relocation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the debate over the bear’s fate unfolded, she took matters into her own paws and wandered out of the city\u201d (https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/lithuanian-hunters-refuse-government-request-081751892.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not a hunter. I have never shot a gun at a living creature in my life. But I kind of admire hunters. Not all of them, but there are a lot of responsible hunters out there. I have even read that in African countries where hunting elephants is allowed and carefully regulated, the populations of elephants have done much better than in countries where any hunting is considered poaching, in part due to the fact that the legal hunters themselves are interested in conserving the populations. \u201cThe push by several western nations to halt ivory and other game imports while at the same time calling for an end to elephant hunting is ignoring a wealth of research that suggests that hunting bans have had unintended consequences\u2014that is, that they\u2019ve led to fewer, not more, elephants\u201d (https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/chrisdorsey\/2024\/05\/08\/recent-us-fish–wildlife-service-ruling-sparks-new-debate-over-elephant-hunting\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is certainly true that in ages past men with guns have hunted certain animals into extinction or near-extinction, it seems that in modern times that legitimate hunters ken more about preserving species than government bureaucrats. Perhaps they can ken the governments about conservation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image: \u201cA bear is recorded by a hunters’ camera in the Pabrade forests calmly feasting on animal baits in Pabrade, Lithuania, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Paulius Peciulis via AP)\u201d (https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/lithuanian-hunters-refuse-government-request-081751892.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the Word Guru daily email, is ken. Ken, pronounced \/ k\u025bn \/ (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/ken), can be used either as a noun or a verb. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,395,806,807,284],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-ken","tag-kenning","tag-linguistics","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7002,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions\/7002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}