A Dictionary of Cont..

kindling 264
he kind of hesitated. This is almost universally
condemned. But it too can be heard in the
United States in all levels of sueech. including
the speech of those who condemn it. A sentence
such as I kind of had to leave undoubtedly
creates a bad impression. But this is due more
to the speaker’s excessive timidity than to his
grammar.
kindling wood; matchwood. When an American
wishes to say that something has been smashed
into minute splinters, he may say that it has
been reduced to kindling wood (His calm verdict
upon the struggle for the gold standard
makes kindling wood of the Republican platform).
An Englishman will say matchwood
(Most of the ships that struck were broken up
into matchwood).
kindly; please. The use of kindly for please in
such phrases as kindly remit has a touch of
unctuousness about it that may defeat its intention
of being elegant or ingratiating. The
quality of kindness or sympathetic benevolence
is not one that can be produced upon demand,
especially upon the demand of a creditor. It
may be argued that the same holds for pleasure,
yet please remit is an established formula. So
it is, but it is so thoroughly established that
in this particular context there is no longer any
thought of pleasure, any more than of affection
in Dear Sir. It is simply a courteous formality
and courteous formality is the proper manner
in which to ask for something that is owed one.
When in a desire to seem less coldly formal
one employs words that have unsuitable connotations,
one’s meaning may be misunderstood.
The unusual word may make the demand seem
unusual and resentment is quick to seize on
trifles to justify itself.
lriPdred spirits. As a term for those who are alike
in natural dispositions and who share the same
interests, kindred spirits is hackneyed.
King James Version. The version of the Bible,
properly known as the Authorized Version,
which was prepared at the command of King
James I of England and first published in 1611
is often called the King James Version (or the
King lames’ Version) and often miscalled the
Saint James Version. The confusion may be
abetted by the fact that the British court, to
which our ambassador is accredited, is called
the Court of St. James (which see).
tingly; regal; royal. That which is kingly may
belong to a king or be fitting for or worthy of
a king (. . . what seemed his head/ The likeness
of a kingly crown had on). Regal applies to the
office of kingship, to its outward manifestations
of majesty and grandeur (With them comes a
third of regal port,/ But faded splendor wan.
This exercise of regal authority proved to be
immensely popular). Royal is applied especially
to what pertains to or is associated with the
person of a monarch (the royal bedchamber,
the royal family) or to that which is ideally
like or characteristic of a king, noble, generous,
munificent (What a royal housekeeper his
grandfather was, in what magnificent style he
kept open house! A royal welcome).
kith and kin is a clichC, one of those meaningless
phrases kept current by alliteration. A fitting
punishment for anyone who uses it would be to
require him to use the word kith at once in
some other context. The chances are overwhelming
that he couldn’t do it. The word meant
originally those who are known to us, friends,
fellow-countrymen, neighbors, acquaintances.
It is related to the old word couth, known. In
the stable societies of older times all of one’s
kin were probably kith, though not all who
were kith were kin. When Middleton wrote, in
1620, A maid that’s neither kith nor kin to me,
he seems to have the proper distinction in mind.
But for well over a century the two words have
been assumed to be synonymous. Burns wrote
My lady’s white, my lady’s red,/ And kith and
kin o’ Cassillis’ blude, though one cannot be
kith of blood.
klang association is a term applied to the manner
in which the meaning of many words is unconsciously
affected by our hearing the sound of
other words in them. Thus fakir (derived from
an Arabic word meaning poor) suggests an
impostor because it seems to contain fake
(which is probably derived from a German
word fegen, to sweep). People expect greyhounds
to be gray, though the first syllable has
nothing to do with color but is derived from
a Norse word for dog. In England today bug
is almost an iudecent word and the American’s
frequent use of it greatly agitates his transatlantic
cousin. Since it derives from the same
root as bogey, it is a harmless word, but the
English seem to connect it with bugger, sodomite
(a corruption of Bulgarian); in America,
on the other hand, bugger seems to have been
decontaminated by its klang association with
bug and mischievous little boys are affectionately
called little buggers with no moral implication
intended.
kneel. The past tense is knelt or kneeled. The
participle is also knelt or kneeled. Knelt is the
preferred form for the past tense and for the
participle, but both forms are acceptable.
knees of the gods, on the. To say of something
of which the outcome or future is wholly dependent
upon chance, or at least of which we
no longer have any control, that it is on the
knees of the gods (or in the lap of the gods) is
to employ a hackneyed phrase. The term, which
is a translation of a phrase that occurs repeatedly
in the Iliad and the Odyssey, originally carried
the idea that since the matter had, whether
of choice or necessity, been handed to the gods
for solution or furtherance, it would be impious
of man to attempt to do anything more about it.
knew. See know.
knickers; knickerbockers. The plural forms refer
to one garment but are always treated as plurals,
as in these knickers are torn. In order to
use the word with a singular verb or to speak
of more than one such garment, it is necessary
to say this pair of knickers is torn or several
pairs of knickers. The form knickers is also
used as the first element in a compound, as in
his knickers pocket,