different between riddle vs kenning

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English redel, redels, from Old English r?dels, r?delse (“counsel, opinion, imagination, riddle”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?disl? (“counsel, conjecture”). Analyzable as rede (“advice”) +? -le. Akin to Old English r?dan (“to read, advise, interpret”).

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   Synonyms: enigma, conundrum, brain-teaser

   • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

2. An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.

Derived terms

• riddler

Related terms

• a riddle wrapped up in an enigma
• riddle stick

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
2. (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hr?der, from Proto-Germanic *hr?dr?, *hr?dr? (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (hrains, “clean, pure”). More at rinse.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

2. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
3. A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To put something through a riddle or sieve, to sieve, to sift.
2. To fill with holes like a riddle.

3. To fill or spread throughout; to pervade.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English riddel, ridel, redel, rudel, from Old French ridel ("a plaited stuff; curtain"; > Medieval Latin ridellus), from rider (“to wrinkle”), from Old High German r?dan (“to turn; wrap; twist; wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *wr?þan? (“to turn; wind”). More at writhe. Doublet of rideau.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. (obsolete) A curtain; bed-curtain
2. (religious) One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south

Etymology 4

From Middle English ridlen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To plait

Further reading

• riddle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• riddle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dreidl, lidder

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?k?n??/
• Rhymes: -?n??
• Hyphenation: ken?ning

Etymology 1

From Middle English kenning, kening (“instruction, teaching; experience, knowledge; sight, view”), from kennen (“to make known, point out, reveal; to direct, instruct, teach; to know, perceive”) + -ing. Kennen is derived from Old English cennan (“to make known, declare”), from Proto-Germanic *kannijan? (“to make known”), the causative form of *kunnan? (“to know, be familiar with, recognize; to be able to, know how”), from Proto-Indo-European *?neh?- (“to know”). Compare Danish kending (“acquaintance”), and see further at ken.

Noun

kenning (plural kennings)

1. (obsolete) Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea.
2. (obsolete) The range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
3. As little as one can discriminate or recognize; a small portion, a little.

Synonyms

• (sight, view; range of vision): ken (noun)

Translations

Verb

kenning

1. present participle of ken.

Etymology 2

From ken (“to beget, bring forth”), from Middle English kennen (“to beget, conceive (offspring); to give birth to”), from Old English cennan, gecennan (“to beget (offspring); to give birth to; to bring forth, produce”); see further at etymology 1.

Noun

kenning (plural kennings)

1. (zoology, obsolete, rare) A chalaza or tread of an egg (a spiral band attaching the yolk of the egg to the eggshell); a cicatricula.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse kenning, from kenna (“to know; to perceive”), from Proto-Germanic *kannijan? (“to make known”); see further at etymology 1. Compare can, keen, ken.

Noun

kenning (plural kennings)

2. (poetry) A metaphorical phrase used in Germanic poetry (especially Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way.

Translations

See also

• heiti

Etymology 4

Origin unknown.

Noun

kenning (plural kennings)

1. (Northern England) A dry measure equivalent to half a bushel; a container with that capacity.

Translations

References

Further reading

• kenning (poetry) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse kenning.

Pronunciation

• Homophone: kending

Noun

kenning

1. (poetry) kenning

Declension

Icelandic

Etymology

From kenna +? -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?c??n?i?k/

Noun

kenning f (genitive singular kenningar, nominative plural kenningar)

1. theory
2. religious doctrine, teaching
3. lesson
4. (poetry) kenning (circumlocution used instead of an ordinary noun in Old Norse, Old English and later Icelandic poetry)

Declension

Derived terms

• láta sér að kenningu verða (“to let something be a lesson to oneself”)
• samsæriskenning (“conspiracy theory”)