ken

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Japanese 剣bor. English ken Borrowed from Japanese 剣.

1. The tsurugi (type of sword).

verb

Etymology: Northern English dialects and Scots language from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan (“make known, declare, acknowledge”) originally “to make known”, causative of cunnan (“to become acquainted with, to know”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną, causative of *kunnaną (“be able”), from which comes the verb can. Cognate with West Frisian kenne (“to know; recognise”), Dutch kennen (“to know”), German kennen (“to know, be acquainted with someone/something”), Norwegian Bokmål kjenne, Norwegian Nynorsk kjenna, Old Norse kenna (“to know, perceive”), Swedish känna (“to know, feel”), Danish kende (“to know”). See also: can, con.

1. To know, perceive or understand.

   “It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one.”

   “Johnny: Is your name Maggie? / Maggie: How'd you ken that? / Johnny: It's just a hunch. Are you looking for the, uh, petulant dwarf?”

2. To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.

   “'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gate, / He riſes on the toe:”

   “I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.”