kenning

[ ken-ing ]

noun

1. a conventional poetic phrase used for or in addition to the usual name of a person or thing, especially in Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon verse, as “a wave traveler” for “a boat.”

kenning

/ ˈkɛnɪŋ /

noun

1. a conventional metaphoric name for something, esp in Old Norse and Old English poetry, such as Old English bānhūs (bone house) for "body"

Word History and Origins

Origin of kenning¹

First recorded in 1880–85; from Old Norse: literally “teaching, doctrine, poetic periphrasis”; ken, -ing ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of kenning¹

C14: from Old Norse, from kenna; see ken

Example Sentences

Most Old English poetry, which is where kennings are found, is nothing like the Medieval Times version of the Middle Ages, with knights and ladies and jousting.

From New York Times

In Old Norse and Old English, kennings—compound words such as “bone-house” or “whale-road”—provided a metaphorical, poetic alternative to nouns.

From Economist

She sang in improvised kennings, recited emphatic lyrics in English and Japanese, and moved between extremes of sound.

From New York Times

As Russell Banks, an American writer, notes: “The source, the need, for the form seems to me to be the same need that created Norse kennings, Zen koans, Sufi tales.”

From Economist

The king is not the “cunning or the kenning” man, and his contempt for “logic-choppers” and “word-mongers” does not commend him to such as value the theoretical above the practical.

From Project Gutenberg