Word of the Week – King

Since we just featured queen, it seemed appropriate to look next at king…even though the history of this word, which traces its roots back to prehistory (seriously!), is less straightforward because of that long history.

What we know is that our current English formation, king, is a contraction of the Old English version, cyning. It meant “ruler” and is derived from the original Germanic language’s version, kuningaz. But where did that come from? That’s where things get murky, since it’s been around so long.

There are theories that the word is related to Old English cynn, meaning “family” or “race of people.” In which case king would be literally “leader of a people group.” Or it could be related to an old Germanic word that means “of noble birth,” which was originally linked to being descended from the gods, back in pagan days.

And have you ever noticed the similarity between king and kin (family)? Yeah, the experts are certain that’s no coincidence, but they can’t actually trace the connection there either.

But back in the early days of Britain, king was used to denote what we would now more call chieftans–leaders of small groups of peope that made up one or a few families. It wasn’t until the rise of Europeans nation-states as we know them now that the word in English took on the more formal, austere tones we associate with it today. And even when the notion of king grew a bit more high-faluting, the same word was still used for chiefs or tribal leaders for many years.

Word Nerds Merch!