Sunday 24 October 2021

That was not what I meant. (K)

It is difficult to see the word 'kill' having any other meaning, but it did.

Kill is to end a life today, but in the fourteenth century it simply meant 'strike, beat'.


Keen or 'eager', was used in Old English to mean 'wise' or 'brave' depending on the context.

Kind is benevolent today, but Old English cynd was used in the sense of 'natural' or perhaps 'native'.

Knight is a title today, but the Old English version came from the Germanic and meant 'servant, farmhand'.

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