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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

KIN, n. Also ken (Sh. 1949 J. Gray Lowrie 77). Sc. usages:

1. A kinsman, relation, kindred; freq. used pred. with adj. force = related, akin, in 1899 quot. = alike in character and habits. Now rare or obs. in Eng. Gen.Sc.Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 78:
My nephew and a Laird he canna be, Were he a Laird, he'd be nae kin to me.Sc. 1887 A. S. Swan Gates of Eden xvii.:
He was his brother, his only near kin.Kcb. 1893 Crockett Stickit Minister 154:
This gentleman, who was a distant kin of his own.Sc. 1899 E. F. Heddle Marget 25:
“Marget's kin to grandfather”, she said.Rxb.⁵ 1942:
Hei may be ca'd Scott like mei, bit hei's nae kin o' mine.

Hence ¶kinawa [ < kin + Awa] , distant relatives (Ayr. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 359); kinless, having no relatives or kindred, sc. as a means of influence. Cf. kithless s.v. Kith, n., 2.Sc. 1720 T. Boston Fourfold State 249:
The base Things of the World, 1 Cor. i. 28. the Kinless Things.Sc. 1882 J. Ogilvie Imperial Dict.:
Kinless loons, a name given by the Scotch to the Judges sent among them by Cromwell, because they distributed justice solely according to the merits of the cases, being uninfluenced by family or party ties.

†2. Ancestral stock, lineage, family (Sh., ne.Sc., m.Lth., Ayr. 1960). Obs. except dial. in Eng.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 43:
Now Bobtail tap o' Kin , Made rich at anes, is nor to had nor bind.Sc. 1819 Scott L. Montrose ii.:
My legs and arms stood me in more stead than either my gentle kin or my book-lear.Edb. 1856 J. Ballantine Poems 206:
He comes o' gude kin.Kcb. 1898 Crockett Standard Bearer ix.:
She was gentle of kin and breeding.

3. Kinship. Rare.Lth. 1858 M. Oliphant Laird Norlaw III. xiii.:
After that first strange impulse of kin and kindness.

4. Phrs.: (1) to count kin wi(th), see Coont, I. 3.; (2) to redd oot or up kin, to trace lineage (Sh. 1952 Robertson and Graham Grammar Sh. Dial. 41; I.Sc., Abd., Fif., m.Lth., Ayr., Kcb., Dmf. 1960); (3) to store the kin, to keep up the stock; fig. to keep going, to last, to live (ne.Sc. 1960). Gen. in neg. sentences. See Store.(2) Sh. 1892 J. Burgess Rasmie's Büddie 85:
Ta redd oot kin ye mann be wice.Sh. 1960 Shetland Hamefarin 10: 
Experts on the favourite Shetland pastime of "reddin kin" will be present to help overseas visitors to find where they are "sib".(3) Abd. 1880 G. Webster Crim. Officer 80:
The beggar wan on to the coonty police aifterhin, but of coorse didna store the kin, lang there either.Abd. 1882 W. Alexander My Ain Folk 67:
It's an unco veesion o' a creatur; aw doot sair it winna store the kin lang.Abd.⁴ 1933:
He winna store the kin lang, he will soon be dead, said of a decrepit old man, a pinched-looking child, down to a bedraggled chicken.