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#1 2015-12-28 14:11:27

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

"kissing kin" for "kith and kin"

Give the regenerative nature of eggcorns, it is natural that fossilized words, found more or less exclusively in idiomatic expressions, should rise again in mutant form. On this forum we have baited breath, bacon call, just desserts, by daint of, ache out, in fine fiddle, two and throw (and towing and throwing), since time in memorial, hosed by his own petard, go out on a lurch, a storm in the offering, receive short shaft, slide of hand, pay umbrage to, wind its way, and beyond my can/beyond my kin.

Today’s addition is an alternative rendering of kith and kin. Your kith are your people, those you maintain a relationship of fealty with. It would be harder to make a list of one’s kith these days. I love the feel of the word kith. Pithy. But obscure, whence kissing kin. The latter can be both a blend, with elements of kissing cousins, and a cute eggcorn. Some sources make an effort to define kissing kin as those relatives who are familiar enough to greet you with osculation, but we’ll have none of that here.

The political spectrum is not linear, but rather circular. We thus find socialism/communism to be kissing kin with fascism
Political misquotes

I don’t like socialism, nor its kissing kin Communism!
Another commie hater

Kissing kin are relatives that are close enough to smooch! Your kith and kin seems redundant.
first person explanation

These kin produced a passel of kissing kin now living in Alberta
homey obituary

This next post suggests that kithing is an eggcorn for kissing.

Today I was introduced to the expression of kith. Now I have heard of kissin cussins (kissing cousins) and kissing kin. These folks said the word was kithing. The dictionary does have kith as a Middle English origin and does that it has to do with kinships. I would have sworn (and I did) that this was an egg corn. Can I get any support?
Word Wizard question

Finally, kissing kin has been identified as an eggcorn endemic to the Appalachians.

Unless, apparently, you come from the US Appalachians, where it’s misinterpreted as ‘kissing kin’, a ‘kissing cousin’ being a relative you can legally marry.
http://h2g2.com/approved_entry/A54479226

Last edited by David Bird (2015-12-28 14:12:12)

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#2 2015-12-28 18:25:07

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: "kissing kin" for "kith and kin"

Whoa—it’s supposed to be “just deserts”, not “just desserts”? Thanks for clearing me up on that one. Really, I hadn’t the foggiest.

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#3 2016-01-11 13:14:18

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "kissing kin" for "kith and kin"

“Just desserts” is one of those puns that is so common it’s a wonder that anyone spells it (and interprets it) in a historically correctly way.

“Kissing kin” for “kith and kin” is a classic. I’m surprised we haven’t noted it before.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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