Editing Kenning (section)

{{short description|Figure of speech}}
{{distinguish|kerning}}
{{other uses}}
{{CS1 config|mode=cs2}}
{{More footnotes|date=June 2024}}
[[File:Beowulf.Kenning.jpg|thumb|Detail of the [[Old English]] manuscript of the poem ''[[Beowulf]]'', showing the words {{lang|ang|ofer hron rade}} ({{gloss|over the whale's road}}), meaning {{gloss|over the sea}}.]]

A '''kenning''' ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]: {{IPA|is|cʰɛnːiŋk|}}) is a [[figure of speech]], a [[figurative language|figurative]]ly-phrased [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] term that is used in place of a simple single-word [[noun]]. For instance, the [[Old English]] kenning {{gloss|whale's road}} ({{lang|ang|hron rade}}) means {{gloss|sea}}, as does {{lang|ang|swanrād}} ({{gloss|swan's road}}).

A kenning has two parts: a base-word (also known as a head-word) and a determinant. So in ''whale's road'', ''road'' is the base-word, and ''whale's'' is the determinant. This is the same structure as in the modern English term ''[[:wiktionary:skyscraper|skyscraper]]''; the base-word here would be ''scraper'', and the determinant ''sky''.<!--modern-English example which translates by [[calque]] into many world languages--> In some languages, kennings can [[recurse]], with one element of the kenning being replaced by another kenning.

The meaning of the kenning is known as its referent (in the case of ''whale's road'', ''sea'' is the referent). Note that ''skyscraper'' is not a kenning, as it is not a [[circumlocution]] for a simpler term; it just means {{gloss|a very tall building}}.

Kennings are strongly associated with [[Old Norse poetry|Old Norse-Icelandic]] and [[Old English poetry|Old English]] [[alliterative verse]]. They continued to be a feature of Icelandic poetry (including {{lang|is|[[rímur]]}}) for centuries, together with the closely related {{lang|is|[[heiti]]}}. Although kennings are sometimes hyphenated in English translation, Old Norse poetry did not require kennings to be in normal word order, nor do the parts of the kenning need to be side-by-side. The lack of [[grammatical cases]] in modern English makes this aspect of kennings difficult to translate. Kennings are now rarely used in English, but are still used in the [[Germanic language family]].