From Middle English kyn, from Old English cynn (“kind, sort, rank”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuni, from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“race, generation, descent”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁yom, from *ǵenh₁- (“to produce”). Cognate with Scots kin (“relatives, kinfolk”), North Frisian kinn, kenn (“gender, race, family, kinship”), Dutch kunne (“gender, sex”), Middle Low German kunne (“gender, sex, race, family, lineage”), Danish køn (“gender, sex”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kjønn (“gender, sex”), Swedish kön (“gender, sex”), Faroese and Icelandic kyn (“gender”), Finnish kunnia (“honour, glory”), Ingrian kunnia (“reputation”), and through Indo-European, with Latin genus (“kind, sort, ancestry, birth”), Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “kind, race”), Sanskrit जनस् (jánas, “kind, race”), Albanian dhen (“(herd of) small cattle”).
1
Race; family; breed; kind.
the starfish and its kin the sea urchin
2
Collective Persons of the same race or family; kindred.
c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers You are of kin, and so must be a friend to their persons.
Based on the number of teeth ammonites had—nine—it's believed that their closest living kin are octopuses.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 84:
3
One or more relatives, such as siblings or cousins, taken collectively.
Among those who derive information related to work from personal contacts, nonkins, rather than kins, constitute the most important sources even for women.2016, Saraswati Raju, Santosh Jatrana, Women Workers in Urban India, page 280:
4
Relationship; same-bloodedness or affinity; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.
Such sensations, however, were too near a kin to resentment to be long guiding Fanny's soliloquies.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 248:
From Middle English kyn, from Old English cynn (“kind, sort, rank”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuni, from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“race, generation, descent”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁yom, from *ǵenh₁- (“to produce”). Cognate with Scots kin (“relatives, kinfolk”), North Frisian kinn, kenn (“gender, race, family, kinship”), Dutch kunne (“gender, sex”), Middle Low German kunne (“gender, sex, race, family, lineage”), Danish køn (“gender, sex”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kjønn (“gender, sex”), Swedish kön (“gender, sex”), Faroese and Icelandic kyn (“gender”), Finnish kunnia (“honour, glory”), Ingrian kunnia (“reputation”), and through Indo-European, with Latin genus (“kind, sort, ancestry, birth”), Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “kind, race”), Sanskrit जनस् (jánas, “kind, race”), Albanian dhen (“(herd of) small cattle”).
1
Uncommon Related by blood or marriage, akin. (It is more common to form sentences using the noun instead.)
It turns out my back-fence neighbor is kin to one of my co-workers.
... and our feeling together had made us forget what-ever there'd been between us to forget about. And I ain't ever in my life felt so kin to folks. I felt kinner than I knew I was. That night, tired as I was, I walked[…]1914, Zona Gale, Neighborhood Stories, page 155:
2 more examples
How serenely Earth keeps on her business! […] Yielding powers to man's hand / While he burrows in her sand, / […] How kin is she to man, who sips / Nourishment with boasting lips, / Detached, but inalienably bound /To be suckled[…]1925, Therese Kayser Lindsey, Blue Norther: Texas Poems, page 53:
For quotations using this term, see Citations:kin.
kin
verb
Etymology Clipping of fictionkin.
1
LifestyleSlang To identify with; as in spiritually connect to a fictional or non-fictional being.
kin
noun
Etymology Clipping of fictionkin.
1
LifestyleSlang A fictional or non-fictional being whom one spiritually connects to.
2
LifestyleSlang Someone who identifies as a certain fictional character.
[Owl:] Oh I ain't stealin' this dime... I just took it for safe-keepin'. [Turtle:] Ain't much you kin do with it—'cept make a phone call.1959 January 5, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, →ISBN, page 4: