Kyne

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned plural form meaning more than one domestic cow or head of cattle
2. A archaic term for a group of cows, used in older English writing and poetry
3. Archaic word for cows, the plural of cow, found in older English texts and verse

Etymology: "Kyne" is an old plural of "cow," and the word has a surprisingly rich pedigree in English that goes well beyond "a herd of cattle." The noun's sense of a group of cattle is the one readers meet in older writing, where a farmer might speak of his kyne in the same way one would speak of a flock or a herd. The form is a variant of "coyne," the spelling that shows up in the sources for this word. Because the source ties "kyne" directly to "coyne," the two should be read as the same word in different spellings rather than as separate entries with separate histories.

Synonyms: cattle, cows, kine