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A kenning (Modern Icelandic pronunciation: (:cʰɛnːiŋk); derived from Old Norse) is a type of circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry. They usually consist of two words, and are often hyphenated. For example, Old Norse poets might replace ''sverð'', the regular word for “sword”, with a more abstract compound such as “wound-hoe” (Egill Skallagrímsson: Höfuðlausn 8), or a genitive phrase such as ''randa íss'' “ice of shields” (Einarr Skúlason: ‘Øxarflokkr’ 9). Modern scholars have also applied the term kenning to similar figures of speech in other languages, especially Old English. ==Etymology== The word was adopted into English in the nineteenth century 〔The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says "late 19th century".〕 from medieval Icelandic treatises on poetics, in particular the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, and derives ultimately from the Old Norse verb ''kenna'' “know, recognise; perceive, feel; show; teach; etc.”, as used in the expression ''kenna við'' “to name after; to express (thing ) in terms of ()”,〔(OED Online )〕 “name after; refer to in terms of”,〔Faulkes, Anthony (1998 b).〕 and ''kenna til'' “qualify by, make into a kenning by adding”.〔 The corresponding modern verb ''to ken'' survives only in Scots and highly remote English dialects, other than the derivative existing in the standard language in the set expression ''beyond one’s ken'', “beyond the scope of one’s knowledge” and in the phonologically altered forms ''uncanny'', “surreal” or “supernatural”, and ''canny'', "shrewd", "prudent". Modern Scots retains (with slight differences between dialects) ''tae ken''"to know", "kent" "knew". Old Norse ''kenna'' (Modern Icelandic ''kenna'', Swedish ''känna'', Danish ''kende'', Norwegian ''kjenne'' or ''kjenna'') is cognate with Old English ''cennan'', Old Frisian ''kenna'', ''kanna'', Old Saxon (''ant'')''kennian'' (Middle Dutch and Dutch ''kennen''), Old High German (''ir-'', ''in-'', ''pi-'') ''chennan'' (Middle High German and German ''kennen''), Gothic ''kannjan'' < Proto-Germanic *''kannjanan'', originally causative of *''kunnanan'' “to know (how to)”, whence Modern English ''can'' 'to be able' (from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Modern English ''know'' and Latin-derived ''cognition'').〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「kenning」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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