Even Greener Pastures

How many here use the word 'kin?' For those who've not encountered it, it means one's relatives. It has an interesting usage in American English. The police will not identify a deceased victim of a crime until "next of kin is notified." However, it's not in common usage in speech or in writing. I've heard it mostly in the southern US states. My wife always tells me not to use it if I throw it out. Which I do, of course, to see if she'll reprimand me for using it. To her it sounds uneducated. I agree with her but some part of me would kind of like to see it in common usage.

I think the reason that it sounds uneducated is the fact that some US dialects say kin for can. That's the best that I kin figure.

What about it? Is kin common in British English or if you're a learner, did you learn to say kin or relatives?

'Kin' is outdated word. In terms of everyday usage, you could probably call it archaic.

But words rarely curl up and die completely : even if we stop using them on a day-to-day basis, they still carry on in isolated pockets. Here we have a few examples of those pockets : fixed phrases and jargon ( as in the fossilised 'kith and kin' and the legal term 'next of kin') as well derivatives such as 'akin to' 'kindred' ( e.g. 'a kindred spirit), academia (as in Irena's example), and regional dialect (often vilified - which is why Madame S. Pierre disapproves).

As you know, much of my knowledge of US culture comes from a misspent youth watching old episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies. When I think of 'kin' in an American context, this is what springs to mind:

Well the first thing you know ol Jed's a millionaire
The kinfolk said "Jed move away from there"

The choice of word is deliberate - it sounds old-fashioned and folksy.  I even seem to remember Grandma talking about family as 'kin'.

In British English, we have all the examples above, including the fairly common fixed phrase 'next of kin'.  'Kin' meaning 'relatives' may still  exist in some regional dialects, but I've never heard it.

There is something to be said about being able to use the theme song for the Beverley Hillbillies in a scholarly presentation.  Well done SuKi! :-)

It is definitely only used in southern U.S., probably only mountain dialects.  It is one of the words that cemented the characters in that show as "Hillbillies".

Wow, suki is here.

Kin is Southern (Appalachian most likely). It´s only used in the legal world now as it next-of-kin as people have mentioned in criminal cases, and in probate law. So, unless you are in the legal field, forget it.