kith

[kith]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR kith ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

acquaintances, friends, neighbors, or the like; persons living in the same general locality and forming a more or less cohesive group.

kindred.

a group of people living in the same area and forming a culture with a common language, customs, economy, etc., usually endogamous.

Origin of kith

before 900; Middle English; Old English cȳth, earlier cȳththu kinship, knowledge, equivalent to cūth couth² + -thu -th¹; akin to Gothic kunthi, German Kunde knowledge

Can be confusedkin kith

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for kith

tribe, family, people, house, sibling, relation, folk, member, extraction, affinity, stock, lineage, relationship, kindred, blood, cousin, clan, consanguinity, connection, race

Examples from the Web for kith

Historical Examples of kith

My grandfather is his cousin, so he's kith and kin to me, somehow, if you can make that out.
Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens
I reject you, and all of your kith and kin—all the false, hollow, heartless stock.'
Barnaby Rudge
Charles Dickens
But Meade is the man of their own kith and kin, and they ought to have known him.
Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863
Adam Gurowski
Gone was the only living man who had stood to him for kith and kin.
The Lion's Skin
Rafael Sabatini
I cannot serve my own kith and kin, but must seek my bread from the stranger!
Lord Kilgobbin
Charles Lever

British Dictionary definitions for kith

kith

noun

one's friends and acquaintances (esp in the phrase kith and kin)

Word Origin for kith

Old English cӯthth, from cūth; see uncouth

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for kith

Old English cyðð "kinship, relationship; kinsfolk, fellow-countrymen, neighbors; native country, home; knowledge, acquaintance, familiarity," from cuð "known," past participle of cunnan "to know" (see can (v.)). Cognate with Old High German chundida. The alliterative phrase kith and kin (late 14c.) originally meant "country and kinsmen" and is almost the word's only survival.