61. Ken

This word is everything. And it’s also just ken. This week, Emily and Kyle discover that ken is a lot more than just a doll in Barbie land.

They find that this word begins, aptly, with Old English definitions related to birth and kin. Ken quickly leaves the next, however, flying to Scotland and gaining a myriad of meanings about knowledge and sight. Turns out it even relates to the everyday word ‘can’!

They discuss how ken still shows up in Scottish English meaning know or see–as well as ken’s existence in American English as something called a fossil word. But perhaps that part is much ado about nothing…