Q. I've often wondered about the expression "kith and kin." "Kin" obviously means one's relatives, but what is "kith" all about?A. "Kith" is a very old word in English, first attested in print around the year 900. It derives from Old English "cythth," a word akin to "cuth," meaning "known." In its early uses "kith" could be a general synonym for "knowledge," and it could also refer more narrowly to knowledge of what constitutes acceptable behavior, or it could denote the country or place which with one is familiar. These senses are now obsolete. In another very old sense, "kith" was used to mean "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors." This sense also eventually died out except for its continued use in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin."
"Kith and kin" is attacked as a cliche by some usage commentators, who point out that because "kith" means - or formerly meant - "friends, neighbors, and countrymen," the phrase should not be taken as referring only to kinsfolk but to countrymen and kinsfolk. (Of course, similar reasoning could be used to argue that "kith" should not be understood as meaning "countrymen," since that is not the word's original sense, and the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the original meaning of "kith and kin" was actually "country and kinsfolk.") What our evidence shows is that "kith and kin" is variously used and variously understood in current English. More often than not, it does seem to imply nothing more than "kinsfolk," and it is thus open to the charge of redundancy, but the precise meaning of the phrase is often hard to pin down. Some writers clearly do apply it to friends as well as relatives.
Q. I'm reading a book that uses the word "despot" to refer to an official in the Orthodox Church. The word is not being used in a derogatory way. Do you have any other evidence of this use of "despot"?
A. "Despot" did not always carry the negative connotations it now does. In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson said of "despot" that it was "not in use, except as applied to some Dacian prince; as the despot of Servia." At that time, the word was mainly used to identify some very specific rulers or religious officials. In the 16th century, it had come to denote a Byzantine emperor or prince. It could also refer to an Italian hereditary prince or military leader during the Renaissance, and in a third sense, the one you've seen, "despot" denoted (as it still does) a bishop or patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In all of these uses, "despot" is an honorable title. It derives ultimately from a Greek word that meant "lord" or "master" and was originally applied to deities.
The connotations of "despot" took a turn for the worse toward the end of the 18th century, perhaps because French Revolutionaries, who were said to have been "very liberal in conferring this title," considered all sovereigns to be tyrannical. When democracy became all the rage, "despot" came to be used most often for any ruler who wielded absolute and often contemptuous and oppressive power. This sense has come to be the prevalent one in current English.
Q. My aunt visited Scotland this past year, and told us about a wonderful festival there called "Beltane," held on May Day. Do you know why it has this name?
A. "Beltane" in its oldest sense is a Celtic word denoting the first of May. Exactly how the word originated isn't known. To the ancient Celts, May Day was a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were removed and people needed to take special measures to protect themselves against enchantments. The Beltane fire festival originated in a spring ritual in which cattle were herded between two huge bonfires to protect them from evil and disease. Perhaps the earliest mention of Beltane (then spelled "belltaine") appears in an Old Irish dictionary commonly attributed to Cormac, a king and bishop who lived in Cashel, Ireland, at the end of the first millennium. The "Beltane" spelling entered English in the 15th century by way of Scottish Gaelic.