This week's theme
Words with unusual arrangements of letters

This week's words
verisimilitude
syzygy
yob
kine
spendthrift

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(kyn)

MEANING:

noun: A plural of cow.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Middle English kyn, from Old English cyna, a plural of cu (cow). Earliest documented use: 1598.

NOTES:

Kine is one of the very few words in English (other examples: I/we, me/us) that have no letters in common with its singular form, cow. It is pluralized using the -n marker, as in the words children, brethren, and oxen.

USAGE:

"Cows stood belly deep in a ranch pond, doing their impersonation of the kine in John Constable's paintings."
Verlyn Klinkenborg; Water and Grasses; The New York Times; Jul 5, 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: