Etymology

-kin

Today it means: Used to form adjectives expressing resemblance or likeness to, similar to -like. Full definition →

Old English cynna ← Proto-West Germanic *kuni ← Proto-Germanic *kunją
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-kin · suffix1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ǵenh₁-
  2. Proto-Germanic*kunją
  3. Proto-West Germanic*kuni
  4. Old Englishcynna
  5. English today-kin

From Middle English -kin, -kinne, -kunne, from Old English cynna, the genitive plural of cynn (“kind, sort, rank”), used in compounds.

-kin · suffix2

  1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*-ikīn
  2. Middle Dutch · derived from-kin
  3. Old English · inherited from-ca
  4. Middle English · inherited from-kyn
  5. English today-kin

From Middle English -kyn, (also as -ke, -k), perhaps from Old English -ca, but probably instead from Middle Dutch -kin, apparently representing Proto-West Germanic *-ikīn, *-ukīn, a double diminutive, from *-ik, *-uk (> Old English -oc) + *-īn (compare Old English -en). Cognate with Dutch -ken, Low German -ken, German -chen, Old English -ċen. More at -ock, -en.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.