▪ I. ˈkenning, n. north. dial.
[Derivation obscure.]
A dry measure: = two pecks, or half a bushel; a vessel containing this quantity.
| [1299 Acc. Rolls Durham (Surtees) 496 In xlvij qr. ij ken. præbendæ.] 1344–5 Inv. Norham Castle (in Northumbld. Gloss.) Kenine. [1392 Acc. Rolls Durham (Surtees) 345 Will's Byng kennen bon.] c 1574 Inv. Warkworth Cas. in Hist. Northumbld. (1899) V. 66 A bushell mett, a keninge, ij peckes. 1576 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 410, I gyve..one kennyng of wheat to the poore. 1673 Depos. Cast. York (Surtees) 196 A kening of wheate flower for pyes. 1825 Brockett, Kennen, Kenning, a measure of two pecks. 1893 in Heslop Northumbld. Gloss. |
▪ II. kenning, vbl. n.1 Now only Sc. and north. dial. (exc. sense 6).
(ˈkɛnɪŋ)
[f. ken v.1 + -ing1.]
† 1. Teaching, instruction. Obs.
| c 1320 Sir Beues (MS. A) 644 Þe stedes hom to stable ran Wiþ oute kenning [v.r. techyng] of eni man. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2472 When y blamed my doughter ȝyng, & gaf no kepe til hure kennyng. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 194 Þis is catounes kennyng to clerkes þat he lereth. |
† 2. a. Sign, token. b. Appearance. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 18332 (Cott.) Þou..has þe kenening [Gött. taken of] þe rode Raised in erth of ur ranscum. Ibid. 24086 (Cott.) Vnethes i his kenning kneu. |
† 3. Visual cognition; sight or view: = ken n.1 3. Phrases in, within, beyond, out of kenning. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 2837 Nawther company..hade Kennyng of other, But past to þere purpos. 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 490 There arriued in their sight a nauie of Shippes, which at the first kenning, they tooke to be french Shippes. 1586 R. Lane in Capt. Smith Virginia i. 5 The passage from thence was thought a broad sound within the maine, being without kenning of land. 1598 Tofte Alba (1880) 34 He is in kenning of his wished Home. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 102 We had also kenning of another Iland called Lissa. 1630 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. iii. xxiv. (1670) 491 Again, at a kenning we cannot see of the Earth above ten or twelve leagues. a 1697 Strathspey in Aubrey's Misc. (1721) 203 The Lady Gareloch was going somewhere from her House within kenning to the Road which Clunie was coming. |
† 4. Range of sight: = ken n.1 2. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 431, I am within syght, as a shyppe is that cometh within the kennyng. 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 15 Not dreaming that her loue in kenning were. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 61 Without your kenning lyeth Sardinia fast vpon the Africke sea. |
† b. The distance that bounds the range of ordinary vision, esp. at sea; hence, a marine measure of about 20 or 21 miles. Cf. ken n.1 1.
| a 1490 Botoner Itin. (Nasmith 1778) 110 Per distanciam de le narrow see..v kennyngys, et quilibet kennyng continet..21 miliaria. c 1500 Melusine 104 He sawe the ship three kennynges ferre on the sea, that is, one & twenty legues ferre. 1538 Leland Itin. III. 19 Scylley is a Kenning, that is to say about a xx Miles from the very Westeste Point of Cornewaulle. 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. xxii. (1737) 94, I see Land..'tis within a Kenning. |
5. Mental cognition; knowledge, cognizance; recognition. Now Sc. and north. dial. † fleshly kenning, carnal knowledge.
| c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 64 Þy seluyn hadde takyn deed, þurgh þe hete of fleschly kennynge with here. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 271/2 Kennynge, or knowynge,..cognicio, agnicio. 17.. in Burns' Wks. (Rtldg.) Life 45, I crept quietly owre the bed, out o' his kennin, and kneeled down beside him. 1828 Craven Dial., Kennin, knowing. ‘Ye're seea feafully waxen, at ye're past kennen.’ |
b. A recognizable portion; just enough to be perceived; a little. Sc. and north. dial.
| 1786 Burns Unco Guid vii, Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human. 1805 J. Nicol Poems I. 187 (Jam.) Gif o' this warl, a kennin mair, Some get than me, I've got content. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., That string's just a kenning thicker than the other. 1893 Stevenson Catriona 103 His father was..a kenning on the wrong side of the law. |
6. One of the periphrastic expressions used instead of the simple name of a thing, characteristic of Old Teutonic, and esp. Old Norse, poetry.
Examples are oar-steed = ship, storm of swords = battle. The term is adopted from the mediæval Icelandic treatises on poetics, and is derived from the idiomatic use of kenna við or til, ‘to name after’.
| 1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poet. Bor. II. 448 The extreme development of the ‘kenning’ in Northern Poetry. 1889 Cook Judith Introd. 59 A characteristic ornament of Old English, as well as of early Teutonic poetry in general, are the kennings. 1896 Scott. Rev. Oct. 342 note, The kennings for ‘man’ in Gröndal's Clavis Poetica extend to 33 closely printed columns. |
7. Comb., as † kenning-glass, a spy-glass, small telescope; † kenning-place, a place prominently in sight.
| 1603 Reg. Stationers' Co. 15 June (Arb.) III. 238 A Booke Called A Kennyng glass for a Christian Kinge. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 606 It standeth forth as a Kenning place to the view of eyes. |
▪ III. † ˈkenning, vbl. n.2 Obs. rare.
Also 7 kinning.
[app. f. ken v.2 + -ing1; cf. OE. cęnning birth.]
The cicatricula or tread of an egg.
| 1585 Higgins tr. Junius' Nomenclator, Ovi umbilicus, the streine or kenning of the egge. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 298 There is found in the top or sharper end of an egge within the shell, a certaine round knot resembling a drop or a nauil, rising aboue the rest, which they call a Kinning. |