▪ I. cun, cunne, v. Obs. (or ? dial.)
[OE. cunnian, -ode, wk. vb., = OS. -cunnôn in gicunnon to learn to know:—OTeut. type *kunnojan, deriv. of kunnan to know (see can). Cf. the parallel deriv. forms, Gothic ga-kunnan, kunnaida, to learn to know, and OHG. chunnên, MHG. kunnen to learn to know, investigate, try, test. See also cunner, conner, ale-conner, and con v.]
In OE.: To learn to know, inquire into, explore, investigate; whence a. To have experience of, prove, test, try, make trial of (in OE. with genitive, in ME. sometimes with of); to taste. Obs. or ? dial.
| Beowulf 1021 Þær ᵹit wada cunnedon. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. v. §3 Mot ic nu cunnian hwon þinne fæstrædnesse? a 1000 Crist 1418 (Gr.) Uncuþne eard cunnnian. a 1000 Sal. & Sat. 227 (Gr.) Cunnað dryhtnes meahta. c 1200 Ormin 834 Ne wollde het næfre cunnenn. a 1225 Ancr. R. 114 He dude his deorewurðe muð þerto, & smeihte ant cunnede þerof. 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 646 They sall not than the Cherrie cun, That wald not enterpryse. [‘Still used in this sense in Dumfr.’ (Jamieson 1808).] |
† b. To try to do something. Obs.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 151 Summe to kunnen if heo mihten him mid sunne undernime. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 87 Swiche hertes..cunneð gif he mai þer inne herbergen. c 1200 Ormin 12137 He wollde cunnen swa To brinngenn inn hiss herrte Erþlike þingess lufe & lusst. a 1225 St. Marher. 13 Heom..þet cunnið to beon cleane. |
c. To get to know, to study or learn: see con v.1 sense 3, of which examples spelt cun, cunne, come down nearly to 1600. In these there was probably a blending of the verbs cunnan, can, with this verb.
| 1425–1580 [see con v.1 3]. 1668 Maynwaring Compl. Physitian 67 He sits down and cuns his Lesson. |
▪ II. cun
see can v.1 and v.2, con v.1 and v.2.
▪ III. cun
(kyn)
obs. form of kin.