a. Also 1 Centisc, 3 Kentisc, -iss, 4 Kentissh(e. [OE. Cęntisc, f. Cęnt, ad. L. Cantium Kent + -isc, -ISH1.]
1. Of or belonging to Kent. Chiefly of the inhabitants or speech. Kentish man (see quot. 1887).
a. 1100. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 999. Com þa seo Centisce fyrde þær onʓean.
c. 1205. Lay., 7441. Kentisce [later text Kentisse] leoden.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 355. Þis Ethelbertus regnede among Kentisshe men fyfe and fifty ȝere.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 71. At last also the kentish-men yeelded.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 346. The wives and daughters of the Kentish farmers.
1887. Kent. Gloss., Man of Kent, a title claimed by the inhabitants of the Weald as their peculiar designation: all others they regard as Kentish men.
2. absol. as sb. a. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Kent. rare. b. The dialect of Kent.
905. O. E. Chron. (Parker MS.), an. 905. Þa ætsæton ða Centiscan þær beæftan.
1670. Ray, Collect. Prov., 233. Kentish long-tails … A note of disgrace on all English men, though it chanceth to stick onely on the Kentish at this day.
1735. Pegge, Kenticisms, 15. Thus the Kentish would have many particularities in their speech.
1866. Morris, Ayenb., Introd. 6. In the Old Kentish of the Ayenbite an e takes the place of the Southern u.
1887. Kent. Gloss., Introd. 8. The specimens of Kentish in the Early and Middle English Periods.
3. a. Common in, or peculiar to, Kent, as Kentish ague, cherry, codlin, pippin, tracery, tree; made or manufactured in Kent, as Kentish brick, cloth, etc. b. Kentish balsam, Dog’s Mercury, Mercurialis perennis (Britt. & Holl.); † Kentish cap, a species of paper (see quot.); Kentish cousins, distant relatives; Kentish crow, one of the many names of the hooded crow, Corvus cornix; Kentish fire, a prolonged and ordered salvo or volley of applause, or demonstration of impatience or dissent (said to have originated in reference to meetings held in Kent in 1828–9, in opposition to the Catholic Relief Bill: see N. & Q., series 2, I. 182, 423; VIII. 278); Kentish glory, a large beautiful moth, Endromis versicolor; † Kentish Knocker [f. Kentish Knock the sand-bank before the mouth of the Thames], a Kentish smuggler; Kentish long-tails, a phrase embodying the old belief that the natives of Kent had tails; also, the Bearded Wild Oat-grass, Avena fatua (E.D.D.); Kentish nightingale, the black-cap; Kentish plover, a ring-plover, Ægialitis cantianus, in Britain chiefly confined to Kent; Kentish rag, a hard compact limestone found in Kent, used for paving and building; Kentish tern, the Sandwich tern, Sterna cantiaca.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 239. Plain Work is done with the Grey *Kentish Bricks.
1766. C. Leadbetter, Royal Gauger, II. xiv. (ed. 6), 372. Names of Paper: *Kentish Cap. Dimensions of each Sheet—Length 211/2 Bread. 18.
1566. Act 8 Eliz., c. 6 § 2. Anye Clothe commonly called *Kentyshe Clothe or Suffolke Clothe.
1803. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man his own Gard., 671/1. Apples,… Holland Pippin, Kentish pippin, *Kentish codlin.
a. 1796. Pegge, Kenticisms, Proverbs (E. D. S.), *Kentish Cousins. The sense of this is much the same with that [of] … cousins germans quite remov’d.
1893. P. H. Emerson, Lagoons (1896), 156 (E. D. D.). We saw a hawk chasing a *Kentish crow.
1834. Ld. Winchelsea, Sp. at Dublin, 15 Aug. (Reddall, Fact, Fancy & Fable, 1889, 301). Let it be given with *Kentish Fire.
1883. Chamberlain, Sp. at B’ham, 30 March. The cheers … are your prompt reply to the Kentish-fire with which Birmingham Tories are wont to solace themselves.
1891. W. C. Sydney, Eng. in 18th C., I. 358. Gangs of forty or fifty *‘Kentish Knockers,’ as these smugglers were called.
1844. Zoologist, II. 620. Blackcap…. It is frequently called the *‘Kentish nightingale,’ which epithet it deserves.
1837. Gould, Birds Europe, IV. pl. 40. The habits of the *Kentish Plover are similar to those of the Ring Dottrel.
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, 341. The Kentish Plover … has its breeding place in Britain limited to the pebbly beach between Sandwich and Hastings.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., I. 158. From the Weald of Kent … they bring … A Kind of Paving Stone, called *Kentish-rags.
1879. Rutley, Study Rocks, iii. 20. Some … as the Kentish rag, afford good building stones.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), II. 100. Thy trembling lip … Red as the cherry from the *Kentish tree.
Hence Kentishly adv., in the Kentish manner.
1588. W. Kempe, Educ. Childr., C iv. Yea, in one house, we heare one speake Northernly, another Westernly, another Kentishly.
