king: [OE] The prehistoric Germanic ancestor of king (as of German könig, Dutch koning, Swedish konung, and Danish konge) was *kuninggaz. This seems to have been a derivative of *kunjam ‘race, people’ (source of English kin). If it was, king means etymologically ‘descendant of the race, offspring of the people’. => kin
king (n.)
Old English cyning "king, ruler," from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz (cognates: Dutch koning, Old Norse konungr, Danish konge, Old Saxon and Old High German kuning, Middle High German künic, German König). Possibly related to Old English cynn "family, race" (see kin), making a king originally a "leader of the people;" or from a related root suggesting "noble birth," making a king originally "one who descended from noble birth." The sociological and ideological implications render this a topic of much debate.
Finnish kuningas "king," Old Church Slavonic kunegu "prince" (Russian knyaz, Bohemian knez), Lithuanian kunigas "clergyman" are loans from Germanic.
As leon is the king of bestes. [John Gower, "Confessio Amantis," 1390]
In Old English, used for names of chiefs of Anglian and Saxon tribes or clans, then of the states they founded. Also extended to British and Danish chiefs they fought. The chess piece so called from early 15c.; the playing card from 1560s; use in checkers/draughts first recorded 1820. Applied in nature to species deemed remarkably big or dominant (such as king crab, 1690s). In marketing, king-size is from 1939, originally of cigarettes.
[I]t was [Eugene] Field who haunted the declining years of Creston Clarke with his review of that actor's Lear. ... Said he, "Mr. Clarke played the King all the evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace." ["Theatre Magazine," January 1922]
双语例句
1. The King made major concessions to end the confrontation with his people.
为了结束与其臣民的冲突，国王作出了很大的让步。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The king's indulgence towards his sons angered the business community.
国王对儿子们的纵容令商界恼火。
来自柯林斯例句
3. It is my destiny one day to be king.
我命中注定有一天要成为国王。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The King has merely given the politicians enough rope to hang themselves.
国王只不过是给了这些政客自缚的绳子。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The last French king was Louis Philippe, who abdicated in 1848.
