Posted by ESC on April 21, 2003 The Word of the Day for April
20, 2003, is: kith \KITH\ noun : familiar friends, neighbors, or
relatives Friends and family are important to Jared, so he makes
a point of keeping in touch with kith and kin even when his
schedule gets hectic. Did you know? "Kith" has had many meanings
over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of
something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another
sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early
1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors"
developed by the 1300s, a time when the word was also used as a
synonym of "kinsfolk." That last sense got "kith" into hot water
after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase
"kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have
complained that "kith" means the same thing as "kin," so "kith
and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other
historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy
charges, be sure to include fri