kenne

v. (wk.)

Cl past kenned; WA infin. ken, pres. 1 sg. ken, pres. 3 sg. kennes, past, pp. kend

'to know' (Modern English ken)

Etymology

Formally this v. continues OE cennan 'to make known, declare' < PGmc *kannjan- 'to make known', causative of *kannan- 'to know'. Go kannjan and OE cennan maintain the originally restricted causative sense, while OIcel kenna, OFris kenna, OS ant-kennian and OHG in-kennen all have an extended sense 'to know'. Given its relatively late attestation, the development of a non-causative sense in English could be accounted for by input from the ON cognate, but it might more plausibly be explained as an independent native development: note in particular the early pp. sense 'acknowledged' (MED 5c, cp. c1225(?c1200) St.Kath.(1) (Einenkel), where it is paired with knouen in both instances). It is, however, also conceivable that this sense might have been reinforced in N and E dial by the ON cognate.

PGmc Ancestor

*kannjan-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

kenna 'to know, recognize'
(ONP kenna (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far kenna, Icel kenna, Norw kjenna, Dan kjende, Sw känna

OE Cognate

cennan 'to make known, declare'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC3ac

Attestation

Non-causative senses are cited by MED and OED from the 13c. onwards. From the 14c. they are more commonly to be found in N and E texts, but this bias is not evident in the earliest examples, e.g. Brut.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Cl 1702; Pat 357; Erk 124; WA 278, 577, 690 etc.

Bibliography

MED kennen (v.1) , OED ken (v.1) , HTOED , HTOED , EDD ken (v. and sb.1), de Vries kenna (1), Mag. kenna, Orel *kannjanan, Kroonen *kannjan-, DOE cennan (B), AEW cennan