Etymology Dictionary

KING,  a chief ruler, monarch.  (E.)   M.E. king, a contraction of an older form kining or kyning.   Spelt king, Ancren Riwle, p. 138, last line; kining, Mark, xv. 2 (Hatton MS.)—A.S. cyning, also cynincg, cyninc, cynyng, Mark, xv. 2; Grein, i. 179.—A.S. cyn, a tribe, race, kin; with suffix -ing.   The suffix -ing means 'belonging to,' and is frequently used with the sense 'son of,' as in 'Ælfred Æþelwulfing' = Ælfred son of Æthelwulf; A.S. Chronicle, an. 871.   Thus cyn-ing = son of the tribe, i.e. elected by the tribe, and hence 'chief.' + O. Sax. kuning, a king; from kuni, kunni, a tribe + O. Friesic kining, kening; from ken, a tribe. + Icel. konungr, a king; with which cf. O. Icel. konr, a kind, Icel. kyn, a kind, kin, tribe. + Swed. konung. + Dan. konge. + Du. koning. + G. könig, M.H.G. künic, O.H.G. chuning, kunninc; from M.H.G. künne, O.H.G. chunni, a race, kind.   See Kin.   ¶ The Skt. janaka, a father, is from the same root, but expresses a somewhat different idea.   Cf. Lat. genitor.   Der. king-crab, king-craft, king-cup, Spenser, Shepherd's Kalendar, April, l. 141; king-fisher (so called from the splendour of its plumage), Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Errors, b. iii. c. 10; king-less, Rob. of Glouc. p. 105; king-let, a double diminutive, with suffixes -l- and -et; king-like, king-ly, M.E. kingly, Lidgate's Minor Poems, 20; king-li-ness.   Also king's bench, so called because the king used to sit in court; king's evil, Holland, tr. of Pliny, b. xiii. c. 4, so called because it was supposed that a king's touch could cure it.   And see kingdom.