Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: K

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

K is for kind, as in 'sort, variety' and also in 'friendly'. Taking these in order, the noun can be traced to Old English gecynd, not only 'kind' but importantly 'race, nature' and thus related to 'kin'. This is from Proto-Germanic kundjaz 'family, race' and derived from Proto-Indo-European gene 'give birth, beget'.

The adjective 'kind' has exactly the same origins as the noun, but Middle English also gave us the alternative kinde with this usage.

Nobody used womankind until the late 14th century; no one was described as kind-hearted until 1530; and one-of-a-kind was not used until 1961. Lastly the slang 'kinda', clearly a form of 'kind of', but a word which was once given as 'kinder', and even Charles Dickens used it, albeit he gave it as kiender.