kenning

  1. Noun.  (obsolete) Sight; view; a distant view at sea.
  2. Noun.  (obsolete) Range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (context, by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
  3. Noun.  As little as one can recognise or discriminate; a small portion; a little.
  4. Verb.  (present participle of, ken) .
  5. Noun.  The tread of an egg; cicatricula.
  6. Noun.  A metaphorical phrase used in Germanic poetry (especially Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way, such as ‘whale road’ for ‘sea’, or ‘enemy of the mast’ for ‘wind’.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.