keen

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kiːn/
• (General American) enPR: kēn, IPA^(key): /kin/

• Audio (GA)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophones: Keane, Keene

Etymology 1

From Middle English kene (“bold, brave, sharp”), from Old English cēne (“keen, fierce, bold, brave, warlike, powerful; learned, clever, wise”), from Proto-Germanic *kōniz (“knowledgeable, skilful, experienced, clever, capable”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).

Cognate with Danish køn (“handsome, pretty”), Dutch kien (“smart, wise, able”), koen (“daring, valiant, doughty, courageous”), German kühn (“bold, daring, audacious, hardy, valiant, venturesome”), Icelandic kænn (“wise, crafty, clever, able”), Faroese kønur (“expert (in, on), experienced, skilful, able, capable”), Scots keen (“lively, brisk; avaricious”). Related to Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). More at cunning, can.

Alternative forms

• keene, kene (both obsolete)

Adjective

keen (comparative keener or more keen, superlative keenest or most keen)

2. (chiefly Commonwealth) Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness; eager, enthusiastic, interested.

   I’m keen on computers.

   I’m keen on you. ― I like you.

   She’s keen to learn another language.

   “Do you want to go on holiday with me?”   “Yes, I’m keen.”

   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act III, scene ii, page 268, column 2:

     Ophe[lia] You are keene my Lord, you are keene. / Ham[let] It would coſt you a groaning, to take off my edge.

   • 2000, Jane Green, Bookends, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN; republished as Bookends: A Novel, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, 2003, →ISBN, page 304:

     In fact, she doesn't mention the fact that I've obviously been avoiding her, just sounds genuinely thrilled to hear from me, and as soon as I mention getting together she suggests Monday, which is rather keen, even for Portia.

3. Fierce, intense, vehement.

   This boy has a keen appetite.

   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act III, scene ii, page 176, column 1:

     [N]euer did I know / A creature that did beare the ſhape of man / So keene and greedy to confound a man.

4. Having a fine edge or point; sharp.
   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 139, column 1:

     The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen
     As is the Razors edge, inuisible: […]

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act I, scene v, page 134, column 2:

     Come thick Night, / And pall thee in the dunneſt ſmoake of Hell, / That my keene Knife ſee not the Wound it makes, / Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke, / To cry, hold, hold.

5. Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. ‎, London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     For when we rage, aduiſe is often ſeene
     By blunting vs to make our wits more keene.

   • 1781 January, William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, 4th edition, London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church Yard, published 1782, →OCLC, page 11, lines 492–495:

     So, when remote futurity is brought / Before the keen inquiry of her thought, / A terrible sagacity informs / The poet's heart; […]

6. Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.

   keen satire or sarcasm

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act III, scene i, page 9, column 2:

     O lawfull let it be / That I have roome with Rome to curſe a while, / Good Father Cardinall, cry thou Amen / To my keene curſes; for without my wrong / There is no tongue hath power to curſe him right.

7. Of cold, wind, etc.: cutting, penetrating, piercing, sharp.

   a keen wind

   the cold is very keen

   • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, London: Printed for J Newbery, →OCLC; 3rd edition, London: Printed for J. Newbury, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1765, →OCLC, page 10:

     Chearful at morn he wakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carolls as he goes;

8. (British) Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.
9. (US, informal, dated) Marvelous.

   I just got this peachy keen new dress.

   • 1985, Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 82:

     Well our hosts here attacked us with a fantastic Dismodulating Anti Phase stun ray and then invited us to this amazingly keen meal by way of making it up to us.

10. (obsolete) Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.

Usage notes

Keen is often used to create compounds, the meaning of most of them being fairly obvious, for example, keen-edged, keen-eyed, keen-sighted, keen-witted, etc.

Synonyms

• (showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness): ardent, eager, prompt
• (having a fine edge or point): sharp
• (acrimonious): biting, cutting, piercing
• (acute of mind): acute, penetrating, shrewd; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

1. (transitive, rare) To make cold, to sharpen.
   • 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC, page 93, lines 1256–1259:

     This is the pureſt exerciſe of health, / The kind refreſher of the ſummer-heats; / Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, / Would I weak-ſhivering linger on the brink.

Etymology 2

From Irish caoin (“to cry, weep; to keen”).

Noun

keen (plural keens)

1. A prolonged wail for a deceased person.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., →OCLC, →OL:

     [S]he went so swiftly that he could only follow her to the door. The large shape of the car swallowed her up; and the car twisted softly around the little drive and away to the London road. Minutes later he heard its Klaxon, just one sharp keen, like the harsh cry of a sea-bird.

Verb

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

2. (intransitive) To utter a keen.
   • 20th century, Stuart Howard-Jones (1904–1974), “Hibernia”, in Kingsley Amis, comp., The New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1978, →ISBN, page 243:

     Last night he had put down too much Potheen / (A vulgar blend of Methyl and Benzene) / That, at some Wake, he might the better keen. / (Keen—meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps: / 'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.)

3. (transitive) To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.
   • 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 71:

     Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.

   • 2000, Mercedes Lackey, Brightly Burning, New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:

     Satiran, lost in his own grief, shuddered once, then lifted his head to the sky and keened out his loss to the heavens.

4. (transitive) To mourn.
   • 1996, Virginia Warner Brodine, Seed of the Fire, New York, N.Y.: International Publishers, →ISBN, page 28:

     I keened my Gran, I keened my babies, but then my words poured out of my grief. I don't have the full heart like that for Owen, sorry as I am for his goin. Without the heavy grief on me I can maybe think of the words easier.

   • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 113:

     She sniffed and nodded and cried and wailed and keened for her husband, who would never come back to her.

Related terms

• keener

References

Anagrams

• Enke, kene, knee, kène, neek

Basque

Noun

keen

1. genitive plural of ke

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• jeen (Ripuarian)
• kein (Kölsch; Westerwald)
• kään (eastern Moselle Franconian)

Etymology

From Middle High German (en) kein, from nechein, from Old High German nehhein. Cognate with German kein, Dutch geen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keːn/

Determiner

keen

1. (most of Ripuarian, western Moselle Franconian) no, not a, not any

   Ich hann keen Belder. / Belder hann ich er keen.

   I have no pictures.

Declension

• The declension is equivalent to that of een (“one”), which see. Keen has additional plural forms, however, which are the same as the feminine forms (but dative plural usually keene). Moreover, keen cannot be used after other determiners.

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰeːn/

Particle

keen

1. no, not any, not a

   Ich sin keen Becker.

   I am not a baker.

   Du host keen Grund fer sowas se denke.

   You have no reason to think so.

Declension

¹Form used when the plural of the noun is the same as the singular

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Middle High German kein, from the merger of dechein, dehein ("someone; anyone", from Old High German dehein) and Middle High German nechein, nehein ("not any", from Old High German nihein).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keːn/
  • Rhymes: -eːn

Particle

keen m or n

1. no, not any, not a

Declension

Narragansett

Etymology

From Proto-Algonquian *kiᐧlawa. Compare Ojibwe giin.

Pronoun

keèn

1. you, thou (second-person singular pronoun)

Usage notes

Usually precedes a verb or noun, like neèn but unlike ewò.

References

Further reading

• Roger Williams (1643) A Key into the Language of America, London: Gregory Dexter, →OCLC, page 2

Somali

Verb

keen

1. bring

Yola

Alternative forms

• keéne

Etymology

From Middle English kene, from Old English cēne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kiːn/
• Homophones: keeine, kinge

Adjective

keen

1. sharp

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 49