Etymograph

English

kid

Kid comes from Middle English kide, from Old Norse kið ‘young goat’, from Proto-Germanic *kidją ‘goatling’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kidją‘goatling’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kið‘young goat’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kide‘kid’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719kid

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kidją‘goatling’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kið‘young goat’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kide‘kid’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719kid

Earliest quotation: 1719, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Cruso: “I went indeed intending to kill a Kid out…”

The story

The sense of child has been in use since the 1590s as slang, and since the 1840s in informal use.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *kidją

Another origin of kid

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kuddijāuncertain
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150*cydde‘pouch, belly’uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*kiddeuncertain
  4. Englishtodaykid

Possibly from Middle English *kidde, from Old English *cydde (‘pouch, belly’), from Proto-West Germanic *kuddijā, derived from or related to Proto-Germanic *kuddô (‘bag, sack, pod, shell, husk’).

Today it means

noun A child, adolescent, or (loosely) a young adult.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kidją / kid

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