Now only Sc. and north. dial. (exc. sense 6). [f. KEN v.1 + -ING1.]
† 1. Teaching, instruction. Obs.
c. 1320. Sir Beues (MS. A), 644. Þe stedes hom to stable ran Wiþ oute kenning [v.r. techyng] of eni man.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 2472. When y blamed my doughter ȝyng, & gaf no kepe til hure kennyng.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 194. Þis is catounes kennyng to clerkes þat he lereth.
† 2. a. Sign, token. b. Appearance. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18332 (Cott.). Þou … has þe kenening [Gött. taken of] þe rode Raised in erth of ur ranscum. Ibid., 24086 (Cott.). Vnethes i his kenning kneu.
† 3. Visual cognition; sight or view: = KEN sb.1 3. Phrases in, within, beyond, out of kenning. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 2837. Nawther company … hade Kennyng of other, But past to þere purpos.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. 490. There arriued in their sight a nauie of Shippes, which at the first kenning, they tooke to be french Shippes.
1586. R. Lane, in Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 5. The passage from thence was thought a broad sound within the maine, being without kenning of land.
1598. Tofte, Alba (1880), 34. He is in kenning of his wished Home.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 102. We had also kenning of another Iland called Lissa.
1630. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd., III. xxiv. (1670), 491. Again, at a kenning we cannot see of the Earth above ten or twelve leagues.
a. 1697. Strathspey, in Aubrey’s Misc. (1721), 203. The Lady Gareloch was going somewhere from her House within kenning to the Road which Clunie was coming.
† 4. Range of sight: = KEN sb.1 2. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 431. I am within syght, as a shyppe is that cometh within the kennyng.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 15. Not dreaming that her loue in kenning were.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 61. Without your kenning lyeth Sardinia fast vpon the Africke sea.
† b. The distance that bounds the range of ordinary vision, esp. at sea; hence, a marine measure of about 20 or 21 miles. Cf. KEN sb.1 1.
a. 1490. Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 110. Per distanciam … de le narrow see … V kennyngys, et quilibet kennyng continet … 21 miliaria.
c. 1500. Melusine, 104. He sawe the ship three kennynges ferre on the sea, that is, one & twenty legues ferre.
1538. Leland, Itin., III. 19. Scylley is a Kenning, that is to say about a xx Miles from the very Westeste Point of Cornewaulle.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxii. (1737), 94. I see Land … ’tis within a Kenning.
5. Mental cognition; knowledge, cognizance; recognition. Now Sc. and north. dial. † Fleshly kenning, carnal knowledge.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 64. Þy seluyn hadde takyn deed, þurgh þe hete of fleschly kennynge with here.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 271/2. Kennynge, or knowynge,… cognicio, agnicio.
17[?]. in Burns’ Wks. (Rtldg.), Life 45. I crept quietly owre the bed, out o’ his kennin, and kneeled down beside him.
1828. Craven Dial., Kennin, Knowing. ‘Ye’re seea feafully waxen, at ye’re past kennen.’
b. A recognizable portion; just enough to be perceived; a little. Sc. and north. dial.
1786. Burns, Unco Guid, vii. Tho’ they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human.
1805. J. Nicol, Poems, I. 187 (Jam.). Gif o’ this warl, a kennin mair, Some get than me, I’ve got content.
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v., That string’s just a kenning thicker than the other.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, 103. His father was … a kenning on the wrong side of the law.
6. One of the periphrastic expressions used instead of the simple name of a thing, characteristic of Old Teutonic, and esp. Old Norse, poetry.
Examples are oar-steed = ship, storm of swords = battle. The term is adopted from the mediæval Icelandic treatises on poetics, and is derived from the idiomatic use of kenna við or til, ‘to name after.’
1883. Vigfusson & Powell, Corpus Poet. Bor., II. 448. The extreme development of the ‘kenning’ in Northern Poetry.
1889. Cook, Judith, Introd. 59. A characteristic ornament of Old English, as well as of early Teutonic poetry in general, are the kennings.
1896. Scott. Rev., Oct., 342, note. The kennings for ‘man’ in Gröndal’s Clavis Poetica extend to 33 closely printed columns.
7. Comb., as † kenning-glass, a spy-glass, small telescope; † kenning-place, a place prominently in sight.
1603. Reg. Stationers’ Co., 15 June (Arb.), III. 238. A Booke Called A Kennyng glass for a Christian Kinge.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 606. It standeth forth as a kenning place to the view of eyes.
