Kn.

Brit.

/keɪ/, U.S.

/keɪ/

Etymology: the eleventh letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages, was an original letter of the Roman alphabet, taken from the Greek Kappa K, originally ?, from Phœnician and general Semitic Kaph ?. Its sound in Greek and Latin was, as in English, that of the back voiceless stop consonant, or guttural tenuis . But at an early period of Latin orthography, the letter C (originally representing Greek Gamma ) was employed for the k sound, and the letter K itself fell into disuse, except in a few words, notably the term Kalendæ and the prænomen Kæso , where the traditional abbreviations Kal. and K. kept up the memory of the archaic spelling. But, with the exception of such archaisms, C became the regular Latin symbol of the k sound, and, as such, was substituted for Greek Kappa when Greek words were latinized, as in Κίμων , Κῦρος , κόμμα , Cīmōn , Cȳrus , comma . In late Latin, when the sound of C before a front vowel had become palatalized, or passed over to /tʃ/, as in Italian cento , città , the same fate befell the C of latinized Greek words, such as Cyrus ; but later Greek words in living (especially Christian) use such as kȳrie eleïson (κύριε ἐλέησον ), which retained the Greek pronunciation, continued to be written with K. To Latin scribes of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, K was thus known as a supplementary letter to C, of use in Greek or other foreign words which had the ‘hard’ or k sound of C before e , i , or y . Hence it was naturally put to use in the writing of Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Frankish, Early Italian, and some dialects of Old French, in which a k sound came before e , i , or y . In writing these languages, C was usually employed, as in Latin, before a , o , u , or finally; but in practice there was considerable overlapping, with the final result that, in German, K ousted C, and is now the proper letter for this sound in that language, as well as in Dutch and all the Scandinavian tongues; while, in French, K was ousted partly by C, partly by Qu, according to derivation. (Thus Old Northern French kanon , karole , katre , ke , ki , kel , became later canon , carole , quatre , que , qui , quel .) So 13th cent. Italian ke , ki , perké , became later che , chi , perchè . In the Romano-British alphabet, K was, as in Latin, of rare use, and was not adopted as a regular letter in Welsh or Irish; though, as being quite familiar to Latin scribes, it was occasionally written as a casual variant of C n. In Old English, the original Germanic k-sound was already in the earliest times fronted or palatalized before original front vowels (not the umlauts of back vowels), and for this variety of sound /c/ a distinct symbol was provided in the Runic alphabet. Yet, in the Old English use of the Roman alphabet, both the guttural and the palatal sound were represented by C, although in the practice of individual scribes K was by no means infrequent for the guttural, especially in positions where C would have been liable to be taken as palatal, or would at least have been ambiguous, as in such words as Kent, kéne, kennan, akenned, kynn, kyning, kyðed, folkes, céak, þicke. But, even in these cases, C was much more usual down to the 11th century; and K can be regarded only as a supplemental symbol occasionally used instead of C for the guttural sound. After the Conquest, however, the Norman usage gradually prevailed, in accordance with which C was retained for the original guttural only before a, o, u, l, r, and K was substituted for the same sound before e, i, y, and (later) n; while the palatalized Old English c, now advanced to /tʃ/, was written Ch. Hence, in native words, initial K now appears only before e, i, y (y being moreover usually merged in i), and before n ( < Old English cn-), where it is no longer pronounced in Standard English, though retained in some dialects. Medially and finally, k is used after a consonant (ask, dark, twinkle), or long vowel (make, hawk, like, speak, week); after a short vowel, ck is used instead of cc or kk, but the unstressed suffix, formerly -ick (musick), is now ic, though, when a suffix in e or i follows, k reappears (traffic, trafficker, trafficking). The native K words, being thus confined to ke-, ki-, kn- (with one or two from the dialects in ka-, ky-), are a small company. But their number is greatly reinforced by the foreign words of recent adoption, many of them very imperfectly naturalized, with which this letter is crowded. These include a few modern European words, Germanic or Slavonic; but they consist mainly of names of animals, plants, trade products, and local offices, from Asian, African, American, Australian, and Oceanic languages. The number of these words is augmented by reason of the fact that some of those languages have two, or even three, distinct gutturals, for which, in ordinary English spelling, K has to stand; the combination kh is similarly put for several fricative and aspirated sounds in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, and other tongues. (See the individual words, in the etymology of which the actual origin of the letter is stated.) In giving these words English hospitality, it was formerly usual to follow English analogies and write C before a, o, u, l, r, h; but the more recent tendency has been to favour the use of K in these positions also; giving the non-English initial combinations ka-, kh-, kl-, ko-, kr-, ku-, by which the unnaturalized character of the words is more strongly suggested. Thus cadi, Calmuck, Can (Chan, Cham), cloof, Coran, creese, now more frequently appear as kadi, Kalmuk, Khan, kloof, Koran, kris. In words from Greek also, many prefer to retain K, instead of latinizing it to C; and this spelling is generally accepted in some words of recent formation, as kaleidoscope, kamptulicon, katabolism, kinetic, kudos, while in others, as kainozoic, kakodyle, krasis, C and K still struggle for predominance. In a very few words (not of English formation), K represents Greek χ, especially in the words in kilo-, as kilogram(me), kilometre, etc.kn- is an initial combination common to all the Germanic languages and still retained by most. In English, the k is now silent, alike in educated speech and in most of the dialects; but it was pronounced apparently till about middle of the 17th cent. In the later 17th and early 18th centuries, writers on pronunciation give the value of the combination as = hn, tn, dn or simple n. The last was probably quite established in Standard English by 1750. The k is still pronounced in some Scottish dialects; in others the guttural is assimilated to the dental, making tn-, esp. after vowels, as a tnife, my tnee.

1. The letter. The plural appears as Ks, K's, ks, k's. (Although now generally pronounced

/keɪ/, the pronunciation

/kiː/ was formerly also current.)

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society > communication > writing > written character > [noun] > letter

staffc888

bookstaffOE

Kc1000

Yc1000

Zc1000

AOE

EOE

GOE

MOE

ROE

letterc1225

print1340

tawc1400

Wc1465

J1591

stave1866

alphabet1972

X-

c1000 Ælfric Gram. (Z.) iii. 6 B, c, d, g, p, t geendiað on e. h and k geendiað on a æfter rihte. q geendað on u.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum (at cited word) Latin wordes begynninge with K be verye rare.

1574 J. Baret Aluearie K Introd. sig. Lll.iii^v K Is borowed of the Greekes: and in writing of our english standeth vs in verie much stead.

c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (1870) i. v. §5 Behind the voual, if a consonant kep it, we sound it [c] alwayes as a k.

1674 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words Err. Alphab. (E.D.S.) 25 C..if we use it in its proper power..differs not at all from k.

1899 Westm. Gaz. 17 Aug. 6/2 She says women have no business to interfere with anything outside the four K's..The four K's are—‘Kinder, Kirche, Küche, and Kleider—children, church, kitchen, and dress.’

attributive.1887 W. W. Skeat Princ. Eng. Etymol. I. 354 The substantive Care preserves the k-sound.1900 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 270 All the k-languages are spoken by peoples living either in the East of Europe or in Asia.1900 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 272 The distribution of the k-peoples does not concern us.

2. Used, like the other letters of the alphabet, to express serial order, as in numbering the sheets or quires of a book, lettering parts of a figure, enumerating items of a list, etc.; the successive groups or sections of a classification; the companies of a military force; the batteries of the Royal Artillery; the different manuscripts of a work, etc.In serial order K is the 11th or 10th member, according as J is or is not reckoned as a member of the series (see J).

a. In Chemistry. K is the symbol for Potassium (modern Latin kalium). It was formerly used to designate a compound of gold ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon). In Meteorology. K = cumulus. In Assaying, etc. K = carat. In Astronomy k designates Gauss's Constant, the square of which is a measure of the mass of the sun. For k in Quaternions, see I (the letter) 6; in Crystallography see H (the letter) 7.

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1853 W. R. Hamilton Lect. Quaternions 59 Let i, j, k, denote three straight lines equally long, but differently directed [etc.].

1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 161/2 The fundamental i, j, k of quaternions.

b. In Physics k (or K) is the symbol of thermal conductivity. [Introduced by J. B. J. Fourier, 1822.]

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1822 J. B. J. Fourier Théorie anal. de la Chaleur i. 54 Nous avons choisi ce même coëfficient K, qui entre dans la seconde équation, pour la mesure de la conducibilité spécifique de chaque substance.]

1850 in Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. (1864) XXIII. 137 The specific heat of the metal being known, we can convert this amount of heat or flux across x into absolute measure; for the Flux is = − K dv/dx and dv/dx is known... Thus every experiment becomes an independent means of finding K.

1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 579/2 Let k be the thermal conductivity of the substance and c its thermal capacity per unit bulk.

1947 Sci. News 4 147 With glass..the heat conductivity (k) is 0·002.

1947 Sci. News 4 148 Steel (k = 0·10).

1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–9 239/1 The k-value according to choice of insulating material is about 0·4 to 0·5 kcal/m² h°C.

c. Physics. The designation of one of the strongest Fraunhofer lines, situated in the extreme violet at a wavelength of 3934 Å and due to absorption by calcium ions.

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1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 1878–9 28 367 The calcium line with wave-length 4226..appears more or less expanded with a dark line in the middle..; the remaining bright lines of calcium are also frequently seen in the like condition, but sometimes the dark line appears in the middle of K (the more refrangible of Fraunhofer's lines H), when there is none in the middle of H.

1897 Proc. Royal Soc. 61 437 The H and K lines have become thin and defined.

1967 R. G. Giovanelli in J. N. Xanthakis Solar Physics xii. 353 The Balmer lines and the H and K lines of ionized calcium are..strong Fraunhofer absorption lines.

d. In Physics and Chemistry k is the symbol of Boltzmann's constant.

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1901 Sci. Abstr.: Physics & Electr. Engin. 4 230 For a comparison of his own reasoning with that of Boltzmann on gas molecules, the author deduces from k an estimate (6·175 × 10²³) for the number of molecules in the gramme molecule of any element.

1915 Proc. Royal Soc. 1914–15 A. 91 529 Where ε is the charge and m the mass of an electron and k is Boltzmann's constant.

1962 W. B. Thompson Introd. Plasma Physics ii. 17 A temperature of 11,600°K is needed to give an energy kT of 1 eV so that the mean kinetic energy of a molecule, ³/ ₂kT, reaches 1 eV only when T = 7,730°K.

e. In Physics K is used to designate the series of X-ray emission lines of shorter wavelength obtained by exciting the atoms of any particular element (cf. L n. 6a); these arise from electron transitions to the innermost, lowest-energy atomic orbit, of principal quantum number 1, which is thus termed the K-shell, and electrons in this shell K-electrons. K capture n. (also K-electron capture) the capture by an atomic nucleus of one of the K-electrons.

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1911 C. G. Barkla in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 22 406 It is seen that the radiations fall into two distinct series, here denoted by the letters K and L. [Note] Previously denoted by letters B and A... The letters K and L are, however, preferable, as it is highly probable that series of radiations both more absorbable and more penetrating exist.

1923 H. L. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines iii. 144 If the excitation occurs through the agency of cathode rays, it is easy to imagine that the tearing-off of the ‘K-electron’ is effected by the impact of a cathode-ray particle that has penetrated into the atom.

1923 E. N. da C. Andrade Struct. Atom vi. 100 Moseley identified in the K series the two lines which he called α and β... In the L series he identified five lines.

1938 L. B. Loeb Atomic Struct. iii. 83 A tube with 1,470 volt electrons may excite K x-rays of Al, while it takes 60,600 volt electrons to excite the K x-rays of tungsten.

1946 H. Semat Introd. Atomic Physics (ed. 2) viii. 342 Probably the most clearcut example of K-electron capture is the radioactive disintegration of vanadium, ₂₃V⁴⁹, into titanium, ₂₂Ti⁴⁹, with the capture of a K electron by the vanadium nucleus to form a titanium atom in the K state.

1951 J. Dougall tr. M. Born Atomic Physics (ed. 5) vii. 220 K-capture should therefore compete with β-decay.

1970 G. S. Hurst & J. E. Turner Elem. Radiation Physics ii. 24 A few nuclei..capture an atomic electron from outside the nucleus, most often from the K-shell, and emit a neutrino.

f. Physics and Chemistry. In the old quantum theory k is the azimuthal or subordinate quantum number (introduced by N. Bohr 1920, in Zeitschr. f. Physik II. 445), which determines the shape of electronic orbits of the same n; (now superseded by the quantum number l). In molecular spectroscopy K is a quantum number which in diatomic and linear molecules represents the total angular momentum apart from electronic spin (now usually replaced by N), and in polyatomic molecules represents the component of the total momentum about an axis of symmetry.

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1922 A. D. Udden tr. N. Bohr Theory of Spectra ii. iii. 44 The perturbations are periodic, so that we may assume that to each energy value of a stationary state of the unperturbed system there belongs a series of discrete energy values of a whole number k.

1922 A. D. Udden tr. N. Bohr Theory of Spectra iii. iii. 85 Where it is necessary to differentiate between orbits corresponding to various values of the quantum number k, a central orbit, characterized by given values of the quantum numbers n and k, will be referred to as an n_k orbit.

1930 R. S. Mulliken in Physical Rev. 36 613 In [Hund's] case b, Λh/2π and the nuclear angular momentum combine to give a quantised resultant... For the corresponding quantum number..the designation K is now recommended. The possible values of K are Λ, Λ + 1, Λ + 2... There is usually a small magnetic field in the molecule parallel to K, so that K and S form a resultant J.

1934 H. H. L. A. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines (ed. 3) ii. 115 In wave mechanics the azimuthal quantum number, our n_ϕ or Bohr's k.., becomes replaced by the quantity l = n_ϕ − 1, l = 0, 1, 2…

1961 J. L. Powell & B. Crasemann Quantum Mech. i. 24 A perturbation of the force, such as might be produced by the presence of other electrons, has the effect of removing the degeneracy, so that states with the same value of n but different values of k have different energies.

1962 P. J. Durrant & B. Durrant Introd. Adv. Inorg. Chem. vii. 226 Paschen-Back effect [for diatomic molecules] (strong magnetic field)... K and S are not coupled together but are coupled directly to the field.

1966 C. N. Banwell Fund. Molecular Spectrosc. iii. 94 Parallel Vibrations [of Symmetric Top Molecules]. Here the selection rule is: Δv = ± 1, ΔJ = 0, ± 1, ΔK = 0.

g. Psychology. The letter chosen to represent the spatial factor, or aptitude for remembering form and structure, in some ability-tests.

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1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Monogr. Suppl. xx. vii. 65 In order to distinguish these eight tests from the rest of the table they may for convenience be called the K tests.

1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Monogr. Suppl. xx. vii. 75 Therefore there is in them [sc. specific correlations], over and above ‘g’, one group factor; this we name the K factor.

1944 L. L. Thurstone Factorial Study Perception iii. 117 It is quite likely that the factor K is determined by experimental dependence.

1950 C. E. Spearman & L. W. Jones Human Ability xii. 132 For the first time, the spatial test does, in some degree, measure K.

1969 P. E. Vernon Intelligence & Cultural Environment ix. 59 Embedded Figures and the Kohs Block test are good measures of the k factor of British psychologists..and this is much the same as Thurstone's original S (spatial) factor.

h. [ < its use as an abbreviation for kilo-.] In connection with Computing K or k is used to represent 1,000 (or 1,024: see quot. 1970¹). Also used transferred to represent 1,000 (pounds, etc.), esp. of salaries offered in job advertisements.

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1966 P. D. Reynolds Computer ABC 54 The internal storage of computers is commonly arranged..to hold a quantity of data which is some power of 2, for example, 4096 characters, bytes or words, which is 2¹². The convention is to refer to this number as 4K. 64K..amounts to 65,536(2¹⁶).

1967 N. S. M. Cox & M. W. Grose Organization Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer ii. 2 It seemed desirable..wherever possible to ignore the limitations of the computer available to us (a KDF 9 with a store size of 16 K 48-bit words).

1968 Data Communications Sept. 143/3 (advt.) Engineers, Mini-Micro Programmers, Analysts..Salaries $15–45K.

1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing ii. 35 Sometimes, a ‘K’ is used for a number which is either 1,000 or 1,024, depending on whether the context calls for integral powers of 10 or 2. If we say that a certain computer has a memory capacity of 4 K words, then, this means either 4,000 or 4,096 words, depending on whether the computer in question has a decimal or binary address system. However, the usage is a little loose: the number 2¹⁶ = 65,536 is written either as 64 K or 65 K.

1970 Daily Tel. 3 Dec. 21/3 (advt.) All progs. PL1-COBOL Ass. plan rpg. for IBM/ICL/Hyl. to £3k.

1971 Daily Tel. 21 July 20 (advt.) I.B.M. programmers...Sal. from £1,600 to £2·4k.

1971 New Scientist 9 Sept. 569/1 Typically, a minicomputer has a minimum memory of between one and eight K words.

1985 G. V. Higgins Penance for Jerry Kennedy viii. 65 I got that property for eighteen grand, net…I had eighteen K then.

1986 Daily Tel. 26 Feb. 25 (advt.) Financial administrator, Thames Valley, from £12k.

1986 Washington Post 31 Aug. b15 (advt.) Computer systems programmer, $35–$40k, downtown.

1986 Washington Post 31 Aug. k24 (advt.) Alfa Romeo—'84... Perf. cond. 23k ml.

Initialisms

I1. K. is an abbreviation for some Christian names, as Kate, Katherine, Kenneth.

I2. = King: formerly used alone; now usually in combination.

K n. king.

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1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor 5 Where Moses speaks of Amraphel K. of Sinaghr, the Paraphrase of Onkelos hath expresly K. of Babel.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 (1623) i. ii. 75 Doth not the K. [1600 King] lack subiects? Do not the Rebels want Soldiers?

K.B. n. King's Bench.

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1818 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) V. 213 It was resolved by the Court of K.B.

K.C. n. King's Counsel, King's College.

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1898 W. Besant Orange Girl ii. xi Mr. Caterham, K.C., our senior counsel.

K.H.B. n. colloquial (see quot. 1925).

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1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin iv. 62 He was a K.H.B., and they were not sorry to be rid of his presence.

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 134 A K.H.B.: a King's Hard Bargain. A worthless or incorrigible fellow. (Old Service term.)

K.O.S.B. n. King's Own Scottish Borderers.

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1909 Who's Who p. xi/1 K.O.S.B. King's Own Scottish Borderers.

1914 F. W. Spicer Diary in P. Young Brit. Army (1967) xv. 203 On our right was the 13th Infantry Brigade, with the 2/K.O.S.Bs. joining up with our right Company.

1924 Cricketer Ann. 1923–4 82 The band and pipers of the K.O.S.B.'s.

1930 H. H. C. Buckley Great Event 33 There was a much advertised football match between the K.O.S.B. and the Royal Scots.

1964 ‘T. Carew’ Vanished Army ii. 128 The K.O.Y.L.I. saw strange faces in their depleted ranks—men of the Suffolks, K.O.S.B. and Manchesters.

K.Q. n. ‘King and queen’ iron.

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1826 Sporting Mag. 18 391 They are manufactured from scrap iron (the best K.Q., or King and Queen as it is called).

1851 ‘Nimrod’ Road 11 Axle trees of the best K.Q. iron.

I3. = Knight (standing alone Kt.) also used colloquially for knighthood.

K n. knighthood.

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1910 Lett. Lord Kilbracken & Gen. Godley (c1932) 13 Long may you live to wear your honours, and I hope that ‘the coming K’ will not be long deferred.

1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 70 That very near miss for an All Souls' Fellowship, The recent compensation of a ‘K’.

1968 Listener 13 June 770/3 A ‘K’ isn't certain any more, even if you're a civil servant.

1973 Times 24 Aug. 12/8 There might not have been much merit in a political knighthood, but there was no harm in it... The ‘K’, when it came, was a boon to the Member's wife, and a blessing to the Member himself.

K.B. n. Knight Bachelor.

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1833 Byron's Wks. (1846) 584/2 Any list of K.B.'s or K.H.'s.

K.B.E. n. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

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1952 ‘W. Cooper’ Struggles of Albert Woods iv. i. 206 They tell me your Principal got a plain K and was hoping for K.B.E.

1968 Listener 12 Dec. 787/3 He was given a KBE for his efforts.

K.B.S. n. Knight of the Blessed Sacrament.

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1916 Let. 12 June in Knights of Blessed Sacrament (Catholic Truth Soc.) (1918) 14 I have started the K.B.S. among my men here.

1923 A. O'Connor Knight in Palestine ii. 11 The K.B.S. and another Catholic made ready the altar.

K.C.B. n. Knight Commander of the Bath.

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1849 W. M. Thackeray Three Sailors in S. Bevan Sand & Canvas xxv. 341 There's the British fleet a riding at anchor, With Admiral Napier, K.C.B.

1880 E. W. Hamilton Diary 29 Aug. (1972) I. 40 Loch, the Governor of the Isle of Man, is to be a KCB.

1904 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 6/2 Lord Lawrence used to speak of England's aggressive policy in India as the ‘K.C.B.’ mania.

1972 Times 6 May 1/4 Sir James..was appointed KCB in the New Year Honours.

K.C.M.G. n. Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

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society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > knight > [noun] > position of commander in an order > of Order of St. Michael and St. George > specific knight commander

K.C.M.G.1842

1842 Royal Kalendar sig. a^v K.C.M.G., Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George.

1880 Foreign Office List 172/2 Rose, Sir John,..was made a K.C.M.G., January 15, 1870... Was made a G.C.M.G., October 29, 1878.

1907 W. S. Churchill Let. 6 Nov. in R. S. Churchill Winston S. Churchill (1969) II. Compan. ii. 695 Delighted Governor who is just made KCMG.

1986 Independent 31 Dec. 4/3 CMG is known by juniors as ‘Call Me God’ and KCMG as ‘Kindly Call Me God’.

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K.C.S.I. n. Knight Commander of the Star of India.

K.C.V.O. n. Knight Commander of the Victorian Order.

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1897 Whitaker's Almanack 108 The Royal Victorian Order. Instituted 21st April, 1896... Knights Grand Cross. G.C.V.O...Knights Commanders. K.C.V.O.

1968 Listener 29 Aug. 278/1 His sufferings..were not assuaged by a KCVO.

K.G. n. Knight of the Garter.

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1876 A. Trollope Prime Minister IV. iv. 52 (heading) The new K.G.

1880 E. W. Hamilton Diary 23 Aug. (1972) I. 37 A Garter is vacant by death of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe..Lord Palmerston is a precedent for a commoner receiving a KG.

1904 Standard 20 Dec. 5/3 Field Marshal Earl Roberts, V.C., K.G., has been appointed Master Gunner of St. James's Park.

1972 Whitaker's Almanack 463 The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein K.G., G.C.B., D.S.O.

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K.G.C.B. n. Knight Grand Cross of the Bath.

K.H. n. Knight of Hanover (Obsolete).

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1833K.H. [see K.B. n.].

1899 G. Palgrave F. T. Palgrave 1 Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H., Deputy Keeper of Her Majesty's Records.

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K.P. n. Knight of the Order of St. Patrick.

K.S.G. n. Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

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1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. K.S.G.

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K.T. n. Knight of the Order of the Thistle, etc.

I4. Electro-physiol. = kathode (also ka. n.), kathodic (see cathode n., etc.).

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K.C.C. n. kathodic closure contraction.

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K.C.Te. n. kathodic closure tetanus.

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K.D.T. n. kathodic duration tetanus.

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K.O.C. n. kathodic opening contraction ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon).

I5. = kilo-.

kcal. n. (also kcal) kilocalorie(s).

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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > heat > [noun] > unit of heat > of specific amount

kilocalorie1894

gram calorie1902

Q1952

kcal.1954

1954 R. T. Sanderson Introd. Chem. iv. 43 Larger quantities of heat are measured in kilocalories, which are 1000 calories each. They are sometimes abbreviated as Cal with a capital C; more commonly they are simply kcal.

1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. iii. 29 The energy required to bring about this rotation is seen to be 5 kcal, a relatively trivial amount capable of being supplied by the thermal motion of neighbouring molecules.

kg. n. kilogram.

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the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement by weighing > [noun] > unit or denomination of weight > metric gram(me) > kilogram

kilogram1797

kilo1870

kg.1892

1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Mar. 7/1 A movable drum weighing 2½ kg...a line of 23 km. length.

kHz n. kilohertz.

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1955 Proc. IRE 43 880/3 A happy solution would be more widespread use of the term ‘hertz’, meaning cycle-per-second. Thus the units of frequency would be hertz (or hz), khz, and Mhz.

1974 Electronics 26 Dec. 48 E A portable a-m signal generator..covers 85 kHz to 100 MHz.

km. n. kilometre.

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the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement of length > [noun] > units of length or distance > metre > one thousand metres or kilometre

kilometre1810

kilo1888

km.1892

1892Km. [see kg. n.].

kVA n. (also kv.-a. etc.) kilovolt-ampere(s).

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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electric current > [noun] > unit of measurement

ampere1881

amp1882

milliampere1885

kilampere1892

mA1896

kVA1905

kilovolt-ampere1909

microamp1923

milliamp1923

abampere1930

1905 S. P. Thompson Dynamo-electr. Machinery (ed. 7) II. iii. 173 An 8-pole, 60 KVA three-phase generator.

1930 Engineering 14 Mar. 355/1 Supplies to the villages will be..through pole transformers with capacities of 50, 20 and 10 kv.-a.

1931 P. Lewis Romance of Water-power 211 The single-phase generators are designed for a continuous output of 6,250 kva. at 225 r.p.m.

1931 P. Lewis Romance of Water-power 216 3-phase generators of 6,000 kva., at 167 r.p.m. capacity.

1959 B.S.I. News June 9/1 The standard applies to power transformers, reactors and earthing transformers having windings insulated with four different classes of insulating material, with single-phase ratings of 1kVA and above or polyphase ratings of 2kVA or above.

kW n. (also K.W., kw. etc.) kilowatt(s).

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical power, electricity > [noun] > one thousand watts

kilowatt1884

kW1905

1905 A. H. Bate Princ. Electr. Power iii. 34 Electrical power can thus be expressed in either of three units, namely:—The watt, equal to 1 volt multiplied by 1 ampere. The kilowatt (K.W.), equal to 1000 watts. And the electrical horse-power.

1921 World's Work Dec. 90/1 The power developed is rated at 88,000 k.w. generated at 7,000 volts.

1930 Engineering 23 May 667/1 The maximum load in the area during 1928–29 was 26,059 kw., [etc.].

1959 Chambers's Encycl. V. 93/2 Central power stations for public electricity supply may range in capacity from the comparatively small size of 40,000 kW to the very large capacity of 500,000 kW or more.

kWh n. kilowatt-hour(s).

ΚΠ

1930 Engineering 28 Feb. 299/2 The best yearly record has been reduced to as low as 12,500 B.Th.U. per kw.-h. sent out.

1963 Times 3 June 12/1 The Minister expressed his belief that in 1968–70 30,000m. kWh of a total electricity production of 260,000m. kWh will be produced by France's atomic plants.

I6. In miscellaneous abbreviations.

°K n. (also K) (degree) Kelvin (see Kelvin n. 4c).

ΚΠ

1911 Physical Rev. 33 226 The value of the ice point..was taken as 273·2°K.

1937 M. W. Zemansky Heat & Thermodynamics xiii. 232 The isothermal compressibility of copper is plotted against the Kelvin temperature in Fig. 72. Above about 100°K the rise..is approximately linear.

1959 Sci. News 51 11 The lowest temperature that can conveniently be obtained by evaporating helium under reduced pressure is about 1°K.

1970 Nature 10 Oct. 144/2 The coolest spectrum recorded over the Antarctic plateau indicates a surface temperature of 190 K (− 83°C).

1972 Amateur Photographer 12 Jan. 38 Household Bulbs...150 watts is usually the maximum, with a colour temperature of around 2,700 to 2,900°K.

K.E. n. (also k.e.) kinetic energy.

ΚΠ

1888 A. Aveling Mech. & Exper. Sci.: Mech. xiii. 137 k.e. of the two masses after collision = mv²/2.

1905 W. D. Eggar Mechanics Addendum 6 K.E. 36, 0, 100 foot-pounds.

1909 C. S. Jackson & W. M. Roberts First Dynamics 88 The gain of K.E. equals arithmetically the work done by the forces.

1965 G. J. Van Wylen & R. E. Sonntag Fund. Classical Thermodynamics v. 84 E = Internal energy + Kinetic energy + Potential energy or E = U + KE + PE.

K.G.B. n. [Komitet Gosudarstvennoĭ Bezopasnosti] (formerly, in the Soviet Union) = Committee of State Security.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > political police > [noun] > secret service or police > other spec.

Okhrana1884

Cheka1921

GPU1922

Gay-Pay-Oo1923

Ogpu1923

Rabkrin1928

Gestapo1934

Seguridad1937

Abwehr1945

Kempeitai1947

Sicherheitsdienst1947

Okhranka1948

Securitate1951

SMERSH1953

K.G.B.1960

SAVAK1962

Shin Bet1964

Stasi1964

BOSS1969

Mukhabarat1969

Mossad1972

Shabak1972

1960 Analog Sci. Fact & Fiction Oct. 122/2 The KGB was once again checking on every foreigner.

1966 J. Porter Sour Cream v. 58 The K.G.B. is willing to shell out a small fortune in roubles for me, dead or alive.

1972 K. Benton Spy in Chancery i. 8 The Russian who's made the approach..isn't the type of KGB operative one would expect to make a run for it.

K.i.H. n. (also K.I.H.) Kaisar-i-Hind.

ΚΠ

a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 108/2 K.I.H., Kaiser-i-Hind (Emperor of India).

1942 E. Partridge Dict. Abbrev. K.i.H. or K.I.H., the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal; for useful service in India.

1973 Daily Tel. 20 Sept. 36/7 Alice Headwards-Hunter, K.I.H., F.R.C.S.E., D.C.H., formerly of Calcutta.

K.K.K. n. Ku Klux Klan.

ΚΠ

1872 in W. L. Fleming Documentary Hist. Reconstruction (1907) II. 132 We advanced upon the supposed K.K.K.'s.

1877 J. M. Beard K.K.K. Sketches 35 The horses of the raid were..furnished with all those cap-a-pie appointments of K.K.K. regalia.

1952 N.Y. Times 1 Aug. 16/2 For conspiracy to flog a Negro woman, the so-called ‘Imperial Wizard’ of the local KKK has been given..four years.

1970 G. Jackson Let. Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 48 I've already mentioned that most of them are K.K.K. types.

K.L. n. Kuala Lumpur.

ΚΠ

1961 ‘G. Black’ Suddenly, at Singapore ix. 129 From there we could have been going to K.L. or anywhere in Malaya.

1973 Observer 7 Oct. 36/6 Here is the capital, Kuala Lumpur, which the old Malay hands called KL and now everybody does.

K line n. in a spectrum, a prominent line partly caused by calcium.

ΚΠ

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 780/2 The H and K lines of calcium are observed at the highest elevations reached by solar prominences.

1921 Discovery Sept. 227/2 Tin atoms can be made to suit a certain series of ‘lines’ known as the K series.

1921 Discovery Sept. 228/1 The K lines of tungsten.

K.L.M. n. [Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij] Royal Dutch Airlines.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > air or space travel > transport by air > [noun] > public service airline > specific

Skybus1919

K.L.M.1933

TWA1933

skytrain1971

1933 Meccano Mag. Mar. 193/1 A pilot flying on the K.L.M. route to Batavia.

1968 Listener 28 Nov. 704/3 KLM suggest you come to Amsterdam just to see the airport.

K.M.T. n. Kuomintang.

ΚΠ

1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 May 270/4 Two months later Chiang struck again by excluding Communists from any higher posts in the K.M.T.

1969 J. M. Gullick Malaysia ii. 85 At one time the Chinese middle class gave its support to the Kuomintang, an effective if externally orientated nationalist movement, but the KMT was ground between .. British restrictions .. and .. communist penetration of the Chinese working class.

1972 ‘M. Hebden’ Killer for Chairman i. ix. 115 I last saw you in Canton... There was one of the K.M.T. generals still hiding there.

K.O. n. (also k.o.) knock(ed) out (cf. kayo v. and n.).

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [adjective] > specific type of blow

round1790

flush1812

sidewinding1848

knock-out1898

roundhouse1907

K.O.1922

society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > box [verb (transitive)] > knock down or out

to knock (formerly also hit, etc.) out of time1821

to send to dorse1822

dorse1825

to knock out1883

to put out1895

stop1895

K.O.1922

kayo1923

starch1930

the world > movement > impact > striking > striking with specific thing > [noun] > with the hand > with the fist > knock-out

knock-out1887

outer1898

Sunday punch1915

K.O.1922

kayo1933

the world > movement > impact > striking > striking with specific thing > strike with specific thing [verb (transitive)] > with the hand > with the fist > incapacitate by

to knock outa1616

to knock (also beat, etc.) a person stupid1811

to knock (formerly also hit, etc.) out of time1821

out1896

K.O.1922

kayo1923

society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [noun] > knock-out or technical knockout > knock-out blow

tie-up1818

knock-out1887

K.O.1922

kayo1933

1922 T. Burke London Spy 209 As a youth the ring attracted him... A few k.o.'s put an end to that.

1923 H. Cox Dogs & I xxii. 209 The Field Spaniel has received the ‘K.O.’ and taken the count!

1927 Observer 25 Dec. 12/6 His record..includes a k.o. victory over Paul Berlenbach.

1927 Observer 25 Dec. 12/6 Knut Hansen, who k.o. Phil Scott in the first round.

1928 Daily Express 25 June 17/7 Young Stanley..was then k.o. by a right swing to the jaw.

1951 ‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids viii. 142 Coker an' another chap was giving them the k.o. as they tripped.

1971 Weekend World (Johannesburg) 9 May 1/2 Morodi said he was not upset by the defeat—the first k.o. he has suffered in 70 fights.

K.P. n. U.S. kitchen police(man).

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > group with special function or duty > [noun] > party for domestic duty

kitchen police1879

K.P.1917

1917 D. C. Falls Army & Navy Information 84 K.P., Kitchen Police. A mild form of punishment.

1921 J. Dos Passos Three Soldiers i. 10 The men..filed by the great tin buckets at the door, out of which meat and potatoes were splashed into each plate by a sweating K.P. in blue denims.

1929 F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1930) 33 Before first call, six or more unfortunates crept out of bed and went on kitchen police... ‘K.P.’ is for good reason the most hated detail in the army.

1930 F. A. Pottle Stretchers 31 A cook or K.P. stands by to see that the dishes are decently scraped before they go into the pail.

1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues xviii. 162 After all the big personnel experts got together to figure out a job that was right for a city girl like me, I was cast for the part of Cinderella of Cottage No. 6. This was nothing but a fairy-tale name for permanent KP.

1973 Publishers Weekly 25 June 70/2 For an uncertain spell he struggles through the miserable childhood of ‘Norma Jean’ in a welter of secondhand conjectures—Mailer doing biographical KP.

K.P.D. n. [Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands] German Communist Party.

ΚΠ

1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 280/2 The violent agitation conducted by the central committee of the K.P.D. in Berlin.

1935 C. Isherwood Mr. Norris changes Trains vi. 98 I am not a member of the Communist Party..I merely sympathize with the attitude of the K.P.D. to certain non-political problems.

1964 New Statesman 28 Feb. 332/1 Relations with Germany—and with the German Communist Party, the KPD—stood at the centre of the picture.

k.p.h. n. kilometres per hour.

ΚΠ

1966 G. B. Mair Kisses from Satan ix. 106 They were doing over a hundred k.p.h. on a snaky road.

1972 W. Garner Ditto, Brother Rat! xxiii. 172 The speedo needle crept past the 150 kph mark.

K ration n. [ < the initial letter of the surname of Ancel Keys (1904–), American physiologist] a package of concentrated food.

ΚΠ

1944 R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 283 We get American ‘K’ rations, with a few extras.

1967 ‘T. Carew’ Korea ii. 19 A K ration consisted of a tin of compressed meat hash, coffee, powdered milk, a fruit bar, cigarettes, chewing gum, and toilet paper.

KWIC n. = keyword-in-context adj. at keyword n. Phrases.

ΚΠ

1959 H. P. Luhn in IBM Corporation ASDD Rep. RC-127 (title) Keyword-in-context index for technical literature (KWIC index).

1967 N. S. M. Cox & M. W. Grose Organization Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer vi. 154 It has been decided not to produce a KWIC index at this stage.

1969 Computers & Humanities 3 166 An obvious prerequisite for this kind of dictionary construction is large key-word-in-context (KWIC) lists drawing on large samples of the language.

Derivatives

K.C.B.-ship n. and the like.

ΚΠ

1881 W. Black Beautiful Wretch I. 24 [He] had got his K.C.B.-ship for long service in India.

1886 Athenæum 3 Apr. 456/3 In 1869 [he] accepted a K.C.M.G. ship in lieu of the peerage he had hoped for.

K.C.B v. to invest with the order of K.C.B.Apparently an isolated use.

ΚΠ

1892 Temple Bar Sept. 127 He was K.C.B.'d the other day.

Draft additions June 2006

[ < the final letter of struck, past participle of strike v. (originally as graphic abbreviation in a scorecard marking system).] Baseball. = strike-out n. at strike v. Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > putting player out > actions

K1861

double play1867

assist1877

put-out1882

force-out1896

rundown1908

pickoff1911

strike-out1911

tag1941

punch-out1973

1861 N.Y. Clipper 23 Mar. 388/2 We take the first three letters of the alphabet to designate the first three bases, and we use the first or last letter of the word we wish to use afterwards; thus, H, for home, K, for struck... Pearsall being put out on the fly by the right fielder, we record it with the letter F,..and Russell..striking out, we simply write the letter K.

1866 H. Chadwick Base Ball Player's Bk. of Ref. 56 The above is a complete record of the batting..and the fielding..and the explanation of the abbreviations used are as follows:..Smith..went out on three strikes, which is recorded by..the letter K to indicate how put out, K being the last letter of the word ‘struck’.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §677/10 K., score card indication for a strike-out, e.g. K1, K2 &c., the first, second &c. strike-out.

1948 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 8 Sept. 22/3 Walter Johnson..and Bob Feller with his record-setting total of 348 strikeouts..are the only modern-day hurlers to register 300 or more Ks in a single major league season.

1971 Daily News (Red Bluff, Calif.) 29 May 8/6 Tony O'Dell of Los Molinos had the best control ratio and also the most Ks.

1992 N. Ryan & J. Jenkins Miracle Man viii. 100 Danny Heep of the Mets, a former teammate on the Astros, became my four thousandth K.

Draft additions April 2011

Geology. [ < initial letter of German Kreide Cretaceous.] In form K. The Cretaceous period.

ΚΠ

1888 R. Brown Our Earth & its Story II. 91 (caption) K, Cretaceous beds.

1920 J. L. Ridgway Prepar. Illustr. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. ii. 63 The standard colours used..Cretaceous (K), olive-green or rainette-green.

1992 Sci. News 25 Jan. 56/1 An ancient Caribbean splashdown at the boundary between the Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T) periods.

2002 C. L. Hotton in J. H. Hartman et al. Hell Creek Formation & Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary xviii. 481 Of the most abundant K species, only Tricolpites microreticulatus declines significantly in abundance.

Draft additions March 2006

K n. slang ketamine, used as a recreational drug; cf. Special K n. at special adj., adv., and n. Compounds 2.

ΚΠ

1984 E. L. Abel Dict. Drug Abuse Terms 90 K, ketamine.

1992 Independent 2 Apr. 5/1 Abuse of the anaesthetic called ketamine, which is also known on the street as ‘vitamin K’ and ‘K’, is being monitored by the Home Office.

2003 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 9 May b1 Ketamine, or ‘K’ or ‘Special K’ is an anesthetic used by doctors and veterinarians. Its action is called dissociative, which means the mind seems to separate from the body, leaving the user in a detached, hallucinogenic state.

Draft additions June 2007

KBO n. Astronomy = Kuiper belt object n. at Kuiper belt n. Compounds.

ΚΠ

1996 Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 28 1081/1 Because Centaurs typically survive only a few Myr before being ejected from the solar system by one of the giant planets, their numbers should be small compared with the number of KBO's.

2002 New Scientist 14 Dec. 33/2 These discs are produced by collisions between icy objects similar to the KBOs.

Draft additions August 2007

K-hole n. slang a trance-like state induced by excessive consumption of ketamine as a recreational drug, typically characterized by temporary paralysis, disorientation, hallucinations, or a sense of disassociation, and likened to falling into a hole; (also in extended use) any kind of trance-like state.

ΚΠ

1992 Out Summer 49/1 The drug..produces in some a pleasant disorientation and in others a frightening, insulating numbness (called K-holes).

1999 Village Voice (N.Y.) 8 June 35/1 Repetitious dialing leaves you in a trancelike state... Last year, I fell into this telephonic K hole and twice hung up a ringing Ticketmaster line.

2001 S. Walton Out of It (2002) iv. 85 He had spent the time luxuriating in a K-hole so deep it was practically a bottomless pit.

Draft additions March 2020

KPI n. = key performance indicator n. at key n.¹ and adj. Compounds 3.

ΚΠ

1989 Planning Higher Educ. 18 7 Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a detailed list of measurements the institution considers key to monitoring and evaluating enrollment management strategies.

1999 J. Prichard & L. Jordan Maximising Performance in Insurance Operations vii. 186 You will need to establish targets against each KPI and consider who..should be accountable for achieving them.

2008 Guardian 9 Oct. (Data Managem. Suppl.) 11/1 Most companies have the internal knowledge to define KPIs but often fail to define valid KPIs that can be meaningfully utilised.

Draft additions April 2011

K-T n. (also K/T, KT) Geology Cretaceous-Tertiary, used attributively with reference to: (a) the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Palaeogene period (lower Tertiary), visible worldwide in the stratigraphic record and characterized by high levels of iridium thought to originate from an impacting asteroid; (b) a mass extinction of 65 million years ago associated with this boundary, during which the (non-avian) dinosaurs and many other species died out.The Tertiary is now not generally recognized as a single period, being divided into the Palaeogene and the Neogene. The boundary also marks the division between the Mesozoic era and the Cenozoic era.

ΚΠ

1981 Science 18 Dec. 1341/1 A strong Ir abundance anomaly at the palynological K-T boundary.

1985 New Scientist 8 Aug. 25/2 One characteristic..seemed to buffer certain groups of bivalves and gastropods against the effects of the K-T event, and that was the geographic extent of the whole group.

1991 Amer. Scientist Mar. 172/3 The brimstone that helped demolish Sodom and Gomorrah could have caused the Permotriassic and K-T extinctions as well.

1993 Sci. News 3 Apr. 213/1 Zircon crystals found in K-T sediments from Colorado.

1997 Micropaleontology 43 286/1 The occurrence of intact coccospheres in a clay layer probably at least some 20 cm above the K/T boundary..would suggest that these species..survived the boundary event(s).

2002 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 31 Jan. 25 The so-called KT impact which killed off the dinosaurs.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1901; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	k
释义	Kn. Brit. /keɪ/, U.S. /keɪ/ Etymology: the eleventh letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages, was an original letter of the Roman alphabet, taken from the Greek Kappa K, originally ?, from Phœnician and general Semitic Kaph ?. Its sound in Greek and Latin was, as in English, that of the back voiceless stop consonant, or guttural tenuis . But at an early period of Latin orthography, the letter C (originally representing Greek Gamma ) was employed for the k sound, and the letter K itself fell into disuse, except in a few words, notably the term Kalendæ and the prænomen Kæso , where the traditional abbreviations Kal. and K. kept up the memory of the archaic spelling. But, with the exception of such archaisms, C became the regular Latin symbol of the k sound, and, as such, was substituted for Greek Kappa when Greek words were latinized, as in Κίμων , Κῦρος , κόμμα , Cīmōn , Cȳrus , comma . In late Latin, when the sound of C before a front vowel had become palatalized, or passed over to /tʃ/, as in Italian cento , città , the same fate befell the C of latinized Greek words, such as Cyrus ; but later Greek words in living (especially Christian) use such as kȳrie eleïson (κύριε ἐλέησον ), which retained the Greek pronunciation, continued to be written with K. To Latin scribes of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, K was thus known as a supplementary letter to C, of use in Greek or other foreign words which had the ‘hard’ or k sound of C before e , i , or y . Hence it was naturally put to use in the writing of Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Frankish, Early Italian, and some dialects of Old French, in which a k sound came before e , i , or y . In writing these languages, C was usually employed, as in Latin, before a , o , u , or finally; but in practice there was considerable overlapping, with the final result that, in German, K ousted C, and is now the proper letter for this sound in that language, as well as in Dutch and all the Scandinavian tongues; while, in French, K was ousted partly by C, partly by Qu, according to derivation. (Thus Old Northern French kanon , karole , katre , ke , ki , kel , became later canon , carole , quatre , que , qui , quel .) So 13th cent. Italian ke , ki , perké , became later che , chi , perchè . In the Romano-British alphabet, K was, as in Latin, of rare use, and was not adopted as a regular letter in Welsh or Irish; though, as being quite familiar to Latin scribes, it was occasionally written as a casual variant of C n. In Old English, the original Germanic k-sound was already in the earliest times fronted or palatalized before original front vowels (not the umlauts of back vowels), and for this variety of sound /c/ a distinct symbol was provided in the Runic alphabet. Yet, in the Old English use of the Roman alphabet, both the guttural and the palatal sound were represented by C, although in the practice of individual scribes K was by no means infrequent for the guttural, especially in positions where C would have been liable to be taken as palatal, or would at least have been ambiguous, as in such words as Kent, kéne, kennan, akenned, kynn, kyning, kyðed, folkes, céak, þicke. But, even in these cases, C was much more usual down to the 11th century; and K can be regarded only as a supplemental symbol occasionally used instead of C for the guttural sound. After the Conquest, however, the Norman usage gradually prevailed, in accordance with which C was retained for the original guttural only before a, o, u, l, r, and K was substituted for the same sound before e, i, y, and (later) n; while the palatalized Old English c, now advanced to /tʃ/, was written Ch. Hence, in native words, initial K now appears only before e, i, y (y being moreover usually merged in i), and before n ( < Old English cn-), where it is no longer pronounced in Standard English, though retained in some dialects. Medially and finally, k is used after a consonant (ask, dark, twinkle), or long vowel (make, hawk, like, speak, week); after a short vowel, ck is used instead of cc or kk, but the unstressed suffix, formerly -ick (musick), is now ic, though, when a suffix in e or i follows, k reappears (traffic, trafficker, trafficking). The native K words, being thus confined to ke-, ki-, kn- (with one or two from the dialects in ka-, ky-), are a small company. But their number is greatly reinforced by the foreign words of recent adoption, many of them very imperfectly naturalized, with which this letter is crowded. These include a few modern European words, Germanic or Slavonic; but they consist mainly of names of animals, plants, trade products, and local offices, from Asian, African, American, Australian, and Oceanic languages. The number of these words is augmented by reason of the fact that some of those languages have two, or even three, distinct gutturals, for which, in ordinary English spelling, K has to stand; the combination kh is similarly put for several fricative and aspirated sounds in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, and other tongues. (See the individual words, in the etymology of which the actual origin of the letter is stated.) In giving these words English hospitality, it was formerly usual to follow English analogies and write C before a, o, u, l, r, h; but the more recent tendency has been to favour the use of K in these positions also; giving the non-English initial combinations ka-, kh-, kl-, ko-, kr-, ku-, by which the unnaturalized character of the words is more strongly suggested. Thus cadi, Calmuck, Can (Chan, Cham), cloof, Coran, creese, now more frequently appear as kadi, Kalmuk, Khan, kloof, Koran, kris. In words from Greek also, many prefer to retain K, instead of latinizing it to C; and this spelling is generally accepted in some words of recent formation, as kaleidoscope, kamptulicon, katabolism, kinetic, kudos, while in others, as kainozoic, kakodyle, krasis, C and K still struggle for predominance. In a very few words (not of English formation), K represents Greek χ, especially in the words in kilo-, as kilogram(me), kilometre, etc.kn- is an initial combination common to all the Germanic languages and still retained by most. In English, the k is now silent, alike in educated speech and in most of the dialects; but it was pronounced apparently till about middle of the 17th cent. In the later 17th and early 18th centuries, writers on pronunciation give the value of the combination as = hn, tn, dn or simple n. The last was probably quite established in Standard English by 1750. The k is still pronounced in some Scottish dialects; in others the guttural is assimilated to the dental, making tn-, esp. after vowels, as a tnife, my tnee. 1. The letter. The plural appears as Ks, K's, ks, k's. (Although now generally pronounced /keɪ/, the pronunciation /kiː/ was formerly also current.) ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > written character > [noun] > letter staffc888 bookstaffOE Kc1000 Yc1000 Zc1000 AOE EOE GOE MOE ROE letterc1225 print1340 tawc1400 Wc1465 J1591 stave1866 alphabet1972 X- c1000 Ælfric Gram. (Z.) iii. 6 B, c, d, g, p, t geendiað on e. h and k geendiað on a æfter rihte. q geendað on u. 1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum (at cited word) Latin wordes begynninge with K be verye rare. 1574 J. Baret Aluearie K Introd. sig. Lll.iii^v K Is borowed of the Greekes: and in writing of our english standeth vs in verie much stead. c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (1870) i. v. §5 Behind the voual, if a consonant kep it, we sound it [c] alwayes as a k. 1674 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words Err. Alphab. (E.D.S.) 25 C..if we use it in its proper power..differs not at all from k. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 17 Aug. 6/2 She says women have no business to interfere with anything outside the four K's..The four K's are—‘Kinder, Kirche, Küche, and Kleider—children, church, kitchen, and dress.’ attributive.1887 W. W. Skeat Princ. Eng. Etymol. I. 354 The substantive Care preserves the k-sound.1900 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 270 All the k-languages are spoken by peoples living either in the East of Europe or in Asia.1900 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 272 The distribution of the k-peoples does not concern us. 2. Used, like the other letters of the alphabet, to express serial order, as in numbering the sheets or quires of a book, lettering parts of a figure, enumerating items of a list, etc.; the successive groups or sections of a classification; the companies of a military force; the batteries of the Royal Artillery; the different manuscripts of a work, etc.In serial order K is the 11th or 10th member, according as J is or is not reckoned as a member of the series (see J). 3. a. In Chemistry. K is the symbol for Potassium (modern Latin kalium). It was formerly used to designate a compound of gold ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon). In Meteorology. K = cumulus. In Assaying, etc. K = carat. In Astronomy k designates Gauss's Constant, the square of which is a measure of the mass of the sun. For k in Quaternions, see I (the letter) 6; in Crystallography see H (the letter) 7. ΚΠ 1853 W. R. Hamilton Lect. Quaternions 59 Let i, j, k, denote three straight lines equally long, but differently directed [etc.]. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 161/2 The fundamental i, j, k of quaternions. b. In Physics k (or K) is the symbol of thermal conductivity. [Introduced by J. B. J. Fourier, 1822.] ΚΠ 1822 J. B. J. Fourier Théorie anal. de la Chaleur i. 54 Nous avons choisi ce même coëfficient K, qui entre dans la seconde équation, pour la mesure de la conducibilité spécifique de chaque substance.] 1850 in Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. (1864) XXIII. 137 The specific heat of the metal being known, we can convert this amount of heat or flux across x into absolute measure; for the Flux is = − K dv/dx and dv/dx is known... Thus every experiment becomes an independent means of finding K. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 579/2 Let k be the thermal conductivity of the substance and c its thermal capacity per unit bulk. 1947 Sci. News 4 147 With glass..the heat conductivity (k) is 0·002. 1947 Sci. News 4 148 Steel (k = 0·10). 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–9 239/1 The k-value according to choice of insulating material is about 0·4 to 0·5 kcal/m² h°C. c. Physics. The designation of one of the strongest Fraunhofer lines, situated in the extreme violet at a wavelength of 3934 Å and due to absorption by calcium ions. ΚΠ 1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 1878–9 28 367 The calcium line with wave-length 4226..appears more or less expanded with a dark line in the middle..; the remaining bright lines of calcium are also frequently seen in the like condition, but sometimes the dark line appears in the middle of K (the more refrangible of Fraunhofer's lines H), when there is none in the middle of H. 1897 Proc. Royal Soc. 61 437 The H and K lines have become thin and defined. 1967 R. G. Giovanelli in J. N. Xanthakis Solar Physics xii. 353 The Balmer lines and the H and K lines of ionized calcium are..strong Fraunhofer absorption lines. d. In Physics and Chemistry k is the symbol of Boltzmann's constant. ΚΠ 1901 Sci. Abstr.: Physics & Electr. Engin. 4 230 For a comparison of his own reasoning with that of Boltzmann on gas molecules, the author deduces from k an estimate (6·175 × 10²³) for the number of molecules in the gramme molecule of any element. 1915 Proc. Royal Soc. 1914–15 A. 91 529 Where ε is the charge and m the mass of an electron and k is Boltzmann's constant. 1962 W. B. Thompson Introd. Plasma Physics ii. 17 A temperature of 11,600°K is needed to give an energy kT of 1 eV so that the mean kinetic energy of a molecule, ³/ ₂kT, reaches 1 eV only when T = 7,730°K. e. In Physics K is used to designate the series of X-ray emission lines of shorter wavelength obtained by exciting the atoms of any particular element (cf. L n. 6a); these arise from electron transitions to the innermost, lowest-energy atomic orbit, of principal quantum number 1, which is thus termed the K-shell, and electrons in this shell K-electrons. K capture n. (also K-electron capture) the capture by an atomic nucleus of one of the K-electrons. ΚΠ 1911 C. G. Barkla in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 22 406 It is seen that the radiations fall into two distinct series, here denoted by the letters K and L. [Note] Previously denoted by letters B and A... The letters K and L are, however, preferable, as it is highly probable that series of radiations both more absorbable and more penetrating exist. 1923 H. L. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines iii. 144 If the excitation occurs through the agency of cathode rays, it is easy to imagine that the tearing-off of the ‘K-electron’ is effected by the impact of a cathode-ray particle that has penetrated into the atom. 1923 E. N. da C. Andrade Struct. Atom vi. 100 Moseley identified in the K series the two lines which he called α and β... In the L series he identified five lines. 1938 L. B. Loeb Atomic Struct. iii. 83 A tube with 1,470 volt electrons may excite K x-rays of Al, while it takes 60,600 volt electrons to excite the K x-rays of tungsten. 1946 H. Semat Introd. Atomic Physics (ed. 2) viii. 342 Probably the most clearcut example of K-electron capture is the radioactive disintegration of vanadium, ₂₃V⁴⁹, into titanium, ₂₂Ti⁴⁹, with the capture of a K electron by the vanadium nucleus to form a titanium atom in the K state. 1951 J. Dougall tr. M. Born Atomic Physics (ed. 5) vii. 220 K-capture should therefore compete with β-decay. 1970 G. S. Hurst & J. E. Turner Elem. Radiation Physics ii. 24 A few nuclei..capture an atomic electron from outside the nucleus, most often from the K-shell, and emit a neutrino. f. Physics and Chemistry. In the old quantum theory k is the azimuthal or subordinate quantum number (introduced by N. Bohr 1920, in Zeitschr. f. Physik II. 445), which determines the shape of electronic orbits of the same n; (now superseded by the quantum number l). In molecular spectroscopy K is a quantum number which in diatomic and linear molecules represents the total angular momentum apart from electronic spin (now usually replaced by N), and in polyatomic molecules represents the component of the total momentum about an axis of symmetry. ΚΠ 1922 A. D. Udden tr. N. Bohr Theory of Spectra ii. iii. 44 The perturbations are periodic, so that we may assume that to each energy value of a stationary state of the unperturbed system there belongs a series of discrete energy values of a whole number k. 1922 A. D. Udden tr. N. Bohr Theory of Spectra iii. iii. 85 Where it is necessary to differentiate between orbits corresponding to various values of the quantum number k, a central orbit, characterized by given values of the quantum numbers n and k, will be referred to as an n_k orbit. 1930 R. S. Mulliken in Physical Rev. 36 613 In [Hund's] case b, Λh/2π and the nuclear angular momentum combine to give a quantised resultant... For the corresponding quantum number..the designation K is now recommended. The possible values of K are Λ, Λ + 1, Λ + 2... There is usually a small magnetic field in the molecule parallel to K, so that K and S form a resultant J. 1934 H. H. L. A. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines (ed. 3) ii. 115 In wave mechanics the azimuthal quantum number, our n_ϕ or Bohr's k.., becomes replaced by the quantity l = n_ϕ − 1, l = 0, 1, 2… 1961 J. L. Powell & B. Crasemann Quantum Mech. i. 24 A perturbation of the force, such as might be produced by the presence of other electrons, has the effect of removing the degeneracy, so that states with the same value of n but different values of k have different energies. 1962 P. J. Durrant & B. Durrant Introd. Adv. Inorg. Chem. vii. 226 Paschen-Back effect [for diatomic molecules] (strong magnetic field)... K and S are not coupled together but are coupled directly to the field. 1966 C. N. Banwell Fund. Molecular Spectrosc. iii. 94 Parallel Vibrations [of Symmetric Top Molecules]. Here the selection rule is: Δv = ± 1, ΔJ = 0, ± 1, ΔK = 0. g. Psychology. The letter chosen to represent the spatial factor, or aptitude for remembering form and structure, in some ability-tests. ΚΠ 1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Monogr. Suppl. xx. vii. 65 In order to distinguish these eight tests from the rest of the table they may for convenience be called the K tests. 1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Monogr. Suppl. xx. vii. 75 Therefore there is in them [sc. specific correlations], over and above ‘g’, one group factor; this we name the K factor. 1944 L. L. Thurstone Factorial Study Perception iii. 117 It is quite likely that the factor K is determined by experimental dependence. 1950 C. E. Spearman & L. W. Jones Human Ability xii. 132 For the first time, the spatial test does, in some degree, measure K. 1969 P. E. Vernon Intelligence & Cultural Environment ix. 59 Embedded Figures and the Kohs Block test are good measures of the k factor of British psychologists..and this is much the same as Thurstone's original S (spatial) factor. h. [ < its use as an abbreviation for kilo-.] In connection with Computing K or k is used to represent 1,000 (or 1,024: see quot. 1970¹). Also used transferred to represent 1,000 (pounds, etc.), esp. of salaries offered in job advertisements. ΚΠ 1966 P. D. Reynolds Computer ABC 54 The internal storage of computers is commonly arranged..to hold a quantity of data which is some power of 2, for example, 4096 characters, bytes or words, which is 2¹². The convention is to refer to this number as 4K. 64K..amounts to 65,536(2¹⁶). 1967 N. S. M. Cox & M. W. Grose Organization Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer ii. 2 It seemed desirable..wherever possible to ignore the limitations of the computer available to us (a KDF 9 with a store size of 16 K 48-bit words). 1968 Data Communications Sept. 143/3 (advt.) Engineers, Mini-Micro Programmers, Analysts..Salaries $15–45K. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing ii. 35 Sometimes, a ‘K’ is used for a number which is either 1,000 or 1,024, depending on whether the context calls for integral powers of 10 or 2. If we say that a certain computer has a memory capacity of 4 K words, then, this means either 4,000 or 4,096 words, depending on whether the computer in question has a decimal or binary address system. However, the usage is a little loose: the number 2¹⁶ = 65,536 is written either as 64 K or 65 K. 1970 Daily Tel. 3 Dec. 21/3 (advt.) All progs. PL1-COBOL Ass. plan rpg. for IBM/ICL/Hyl. to £3k. 1971 Daily Tel. 21 July 20 (advt.) I.B.M. programmers...Sal. from £1,600 to £2·4k. 1971 New Scientist 9 Sept. 569/1 Typically, a minicomputer has a minimum memory of between one and eight K words. 1985 G. V. Higgins Penance for Jerry Kennedy viii. 65 I got that property for eighteen grand, net…I had eighteen K then. 1986 Daily Tel. 26 Feb. 25 (advt.) Financial administrator, Thames Valley, from £12k. 1986 Washington Post 31 Aug. b15 (advt.) Computer systems programmer, $35–$40k, downtown. 1986 Washington Post 31 Aug. k24 (advt.) Alfa Romeo—'84... Perf. cond. 23k ml. Initialisms I1. K. is an abbreviation for some Christian names, as Kate, Katherine, Kenneth. I2. = King: formerly used alone; now usually in combination. K n. king. ΚΠ 1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor 5 Where Moses speaks of Amraphel K. of Sinaghr, the Paraphrase of Onkelos hath expresly K. of Babel. a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 (1623) i. ii. 75 Doth not the K. [1600 King] lack subiects? Do not the Rebels want Soldiers? K.B. n. King's Bench. ΚΠ 1818 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) V. 213 It was resolved by the Court of K.B. K.C. n. King's Counsel, King's College. ΚΠ 1898 W. Besant Orange Girl ii. xi Mr. Caterham, K.C., our senior counsel. K.H.B. n. colloquial (see quot. 1925). ΚΠ 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin iv. 62 He was a K.H.B., and they were not sorry to be rid of his presence. 1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 134 A K.H.B.: a King's Hard Bargain. A worthless or incorrigible fellow. (Old Service term.) K.O.S.B. n. King's Own Scottish Borderers. ΚΠ 1909 Who's Who p. xi/1 K.O.S.B. King's Own Scottish Borderers. 1914 F. W. Spicer Diary in P. Young Brit. Army (1967) xv. 203 On our right was the 13th Infantry Brigade, with the 2/K.O.S.Bs. joining up with our right Company. 1924 Cricketer Ann. 1923–4 82 The band and pipers of the K.O.S.B.'s. 1930 H. H. C. Buckley Great Event 33 There was a much advertised football match between the K.O.S.B. and the Royal Scots. 1964 ‘T. Carew’ Vanished Army ii. 128 The K.O.Y.L.I. saw strange faces in their depleted ranks—men of the Suffolks, K.O.S.B. and Manchesters. K.Q. n. ‘King and queen’ iron. ΚΠ 1826 Sporting Mag. 18 391 They are manufactured from scrap iron (the best K.Q., or King and Queen as it is called). 1851 ‘Nimrod’ Road 11 Axle trees of the best K.Q. iron. I3. = Knight (standing alone Kt.) also used colloquially for knighthood. K n. knighthood. ΚΠ 1910 Lett. Lord Kilbracken & Gen. Godley (c1932) 13 Long may you live to wear your honours, and I hope that ‘the coming K’ will not be long deferred. 1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 70 That very near miss for an All Souls' Fellowship, The recent compensation of a ‘K’. 1968 Listener 13 June 770/3 A ‘K’ isn't certain any more, even if you're a civil servant. 1973 Times 24 Aug. 12/8 There might not have been much merit in a political knighthood, but there was no harm in it... The ‘K’, when it came, was a boon to the Member's wife, and a blessing to the Member himself. K.B. n. Knight Bachelor. ΚΠ 1833 Byron's Wks. (1846) 584/2 Any list of K.B.'s or K.H.'s. K.B.E. n. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. ΚΠ 1952 ‘W. Cooper’ Struggles of Albert Woods iv. i. 206 They tell me your Principal got a plain K and was hoping for K.B.E. 1968 Listener 12 Dec. 787/3 He was given a KBE for his efforts. K.B.S. n. Knight of the Blessed Sacrament. ΚΠ 1916 Let. 12 June in Knights of Blessed Sacrament (Catholic Truth Soc.) (1918) 14 I have started the K.B.S. among my men here. 1923 A. O'Connor Knight in Palestine ii. 11 The K.B.S. and another Catholic made ready the altar. K.C.B. n. Knight Commander of the Bath. ΚΠ 1849 W. M. Thackeray Three Sailors in S. Bevan Sand & Canvas xxv. 341 There's the British fleet a riding at anchor, With Admiral Napier, K.C.B. 1880 E. W. Hamilton Diary 29 Aug. (1972) I. 40 Loch, the Governor of the Isle of Man, is to be a KCB. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 6/2 Lord Lawrence used to speak of England's aggressive policy in India as the ‘K.C.B.’ mania. 1972 Times 6 May 1/4 Sir James..was appointed KCB in the New Year Honours. K.C.M.G. n. Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > knight > [noun] > position of commander in an order > of Order of St. Michael and St. George > specific knight commander K.C.M.G.1842 1842 Royal Kalendar sig. a^v K.C.M.G., Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George. 1880 Foreign Office List 172/2 Rose, Sir John,..was made a K.C.M.G., January 15, 1870... Was made a G.C.M.G., October 29, 1878. 1907 W. S. Churchill Let. 6 Nov. in R. S. Churchill Winston S. Churchill (1969) II. Compan. ii. 695 Delighted Governor who is just made KCMG. 1986 Independent 31 Dec. 4/3 CMG is known by juniors as ‘Call Me God’ and KCMG as ‘Kindly Call Me God’. Categories » K.C.S.I. n. Knight Commander of the Star of India. K.C.V.O. n. Knight Commander of the Victorian Order. ΚΠ 1897 Whitaker's Almanack 108 The Royal Victorian Order. Instituted 21st April, 1896... Knights Grand Cross. G.C.V.O...Knights Commanders. K.C.V.O. 1968 Listener 29 Aug. 278/1 His sufferings..were not assuaged by a KCVO. K.G. n. Knight of the Garter. ΚΠ 1876 A. Trollope Prime Minister IV. iv. 52 (heading) The new K.G. 1880 E. W. Hamilton Diary 23 Aug. (1972) I. 37 A Garter is vacant by death of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe..Lord Palmerston is a precedent for a commoner receiving a KG. 1904 Standard 20 Dec. 5/3 Field Marshal Earl Roberts, V.C., K.G., has been appointed Master Gunner of St. James's Park. 1972 Whitaker's Almanack 463 The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein K.G., G.C.B., D.S.O. Categories » K.G.C.B. n. Knight Grand Cross of the Bath. K.H. n. Knight of Hanover (Obsolete). ΚΠ 1833K.H. [see K.B. n.]. 1899 G. Palgrave F. T. Palgrave 1 Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H., Deputy Keeper of Her Majesty's Records. Categories » K.P. n. Knight of the Order of St. Patrick. K.S.G. n. Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. ΚΠ 1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. K.S.G. Categories » K.T. n. Knight of the Order of the Thistle, etc. I4. Electro-physiol. = kathode (also ka. n.), kathodic (see cathode n., etc.). Categories » K.C.C. n. kathodic closure contraction. Categories » K.C.Te. n. kathodic closure tetanus. Categories » K.D.T. n. kathodic duration tetanus. Categories » K.O.C. n. kathodic opening contraction ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon). I5. = kilo-. kcal. n. (also kcal) kilocalorie(s). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > heat > [noun] > unit of heat > of specific amount kilocalorie1894 gram calorie1902 Q1952 kcal.1954 1954 R. T. Sanderson Introd. Chem. iv. 43 Larger quantities of heat are measured in kilocalories, which are 1000 calories each. They are sometimes abbreviated as Cal with a capital C; more commonly they are simply kcal. 1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. iii. 29 The energy required to bring about this rotation is seen to be 5 kcal, a relatively trivial amount capable of being supplied by the thermal motion of neighbouring molecules. kg. n. kilogram. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement by weighing > [noun] > unit or denomination of weight > metric gram(me) > kilogram kilogram1797 kilo1870 kg.1892 1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Mar. 7/1 A movable drum weighing 2½ kg...a line of 23 km. length. kHz n. kilohertz. ΚΠ 1955 Proc. IRE 43 880/3 A happy solution would be more widespread use of the term ‘hertz’, meaning cycle-per-second. Thus the units of frequency would be hertz (or hz), khz, and Mhz. 1974 Electronics 26 Dec. 48 E A portable a-m signal generator..covers 85 kHz to 100 MHz. km. n. kilometre. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement of length > [noun] > units of length or distance > metre > one thousand metres or kilometre kilometre1810 kilo1888 km.1892 1892Km. [see kg. n.]. kVA n. (also kv.-a. etc.) kilovolt-ampere(s). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electric current > [noun] > unit of measurement ampere1881 amp1882 milliampere1885 kilampere1892 mA1896 kVA1905 kilovolt-ampere1909 microamp1923 milliamp1923 abampere1930 1905 S. P. Thompson Dynamo-electr. Machinery (ed. 7) II. iii. 173 An 8-pole, 60 KVA three-phase generator. 1930 Engineering 14 Mar. 355/1 Supplies to the villages will be..through pole transformers with capacities of 50, 20 and 10 kv.-a. 1931 P. Lewis Romance of Water-power 211 The single-phase generators are designed for a continuous output of 6,250 kva. at 225 r.p.m. 1931 P. Lewis Romance of Water-power 216 3-phase generators of 6,000 kva., at 167 r.p.m. capacity. 1959 B.S.I. News June 9/1 The standard applies to power transformers, reactors and earthing transformers having windings insulated with four different classes of insulating material, with single-phase ratings of 1kVA and above or polyphase ratings of 2kVA or above. kW n. (also K.W., kw. etc.) kilowatt(s). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical power, electricity > [noun] > one thousand watts kilowatt1884 kW1905 1905 A. H. Bate Princ. Electr. Power iii. 34 Electrical power can thus be expressed in either of three units, namely:—The watt, equal to 1 volt multiplied by 1 ampere. The kilowatt (K.W.), equal to 1000 watts. And the electrical horse-power. 1921 World's Work Dec. 90/1 The power developed is rated at 88,000 k.w. generated at 7,000 volts. 1930 Engineering 23 May 667/1 The maximum load in the area during 1928–29 was 26,059 kw., [etc.]. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. V. 93/2 Central power stations for public electricity supply may range in capacity from the comparatively small size of 40,000 kW to the very large capacity of 500,000 kW or more. kWh n. kilowatt-hour(s). ΚΠ 1930 Engineering 28 Feb. 299/2 The best yearly record has been reduced to as low as 12,500 B.Th.U. per kw.-h. sent out. 1963 Times 3 June 12/1 The Minister expressed his belief that in 1968–70 30,000m. kWh of a total electricity production of 260,000m. kWh will be produced by France's atomic plants. I6. In miscellaneous abbreviations. °K n. (also K) (degree) Kelvin (see Kelvin n. 4c). ΚΠ 1911 Physical Rev. 33 226 The value of the ice point..was taken as 273·2°K. 1937 M. W. Zemansky Heat & Thermodynamics xiii. 232 The isothermal compressibility of copper is plotted against the Kelvin temperature in Fig. 72. Above about 100°K the rise..is approximately linear. 1959 Sci. News 51 11 The lowest temperature that can conveniently be obtained by evaporating helium under reduced pressure is about 1°K. 1970 Nature 10 Oct. 144/2 The coolest spectrum recorded over the Antarctic plateau indicates a surface temperature of 190 K (− 83°C). 1972 Amateur Photographer 12 Jan. 38 Household Bulbs...150 watts is usually the maximum, with a colour temperature of around 2,700 to 2,900°K. K.E. n. (also k.e.) kinetic energy. ΚΠ 1888 A. Aveling Mech. & Exper. Sci.: Mech. xiii. 137 k.e. of the two masses after collision = mv²/2. 1905 W. D. Eggar Mechanics Addendum 6 K.E. 36, 0, 100 foot-pounds. 1909 C. S. Jackson & W. M. Roberts First Dynamics 88 The gain of K.E. equals arithmetically the work done by the forces. 1965 G. J. Van Wylen & R. E. Sonntag Fund. Classical Thermodynamics v. 84 E = Internal energy + Kinetic energy + Potential energy or E = U + KE + PE. K.G.B. n. [Komitet Gosudarstvennoĭ Bezopasnosti] (formerly, in the Soviet Union) = Committee of State Security. ΘΚΠ society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > political police > [noun] > secret service or police > other spec. Okhrana1884 Cheka1921 GPU1922 Gay-Pay-Oo1923 Ogpu1923 Rabkrin1928 Gestapo1934 Seguridad1937 Abwehr1945 Kempeitai1947 Sicherheitsdienst1947 Okhranka1948 Securitate1951 SMERSH1953 K.G.B.1960 SAVAK1962 Shin Bet1964 Stasi1964 BOSS1969 Mukhabarat1969 Mossad1972 Shabak1972 1960 Analog Sci. Fact & Fiction Oct. 122/2 The KGB was once again checking on every foreigner. 1966 J. Porter Sour Cream v. 58 The K.G.B. is willing to shell out a small fortune in roubles for me, dead or alive. 1972 K. Benton Spy in Chancery i. 8 The Russian who's made the approach..isn't the type of KGB operative one would expect to make a run for it. K.i.H. n. (also K.I.H.) Kaisar-i-Hind. ΚΠ a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 108/2 K.I.H., Kaiser-i-Hind (Emperor of India). 1942 E. Partridge Dict. Abbrev. K.i.H. or K.I.H., the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal; for useful service in India. 1973 Daily Tel. 20 Sept. 36/7 Alice Headwards-Hunter, K.I.H., F.R.C.S.E., D.C.H., formerly of Calcutta. K.K.K. n. Ku Klux Klan. ΚΠ 1872 in W. L. Fleming Documentary Hist. Reconstruction (1907) II. 132 We advanced upon the supposed K.K.K.'s. 1877 J. M. Beard K.K.K. Sketches 35 The horses of the raid were..furnished with all those cap-a-pie appointments of K.K.K. regalia. 1952 N.Y. Times 1 Aug. 16/2 For conspiracy to flog a Negro woman, the so-called ‘Imperial Wizard’ of the local KKK has been given..four years. 1970 G. Jackson Let. Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 48 I've already mentioned that most of them are K.K.K. types. K.L. n. Kuala Lumpur. ΚΠ 1961 ‘G. Black’ Suddenly, at Singapore ix. 129 From there we could have been going to K.L. or anywhere in Malaya. 1973 Observer 7 Oct. 36/6 Here is the capital, Kuala Lumpur, which the old Malay hands called KL and now everybody does. K line n. in a spectrum, a prominent line partly caused by calcium. ΚΠ 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 780/2 The H and K lines of calcium are observed at the highest elevations reached by solar prominences. 1921 Discovery Sept. 227/2 Tin atoms can be made to suit a certain series of ‘lines’ known as the K series. 1921 Discovery Sept. 228/1 The K lines of tungsten. K.L.M. n. [Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij] Royal Dutch Airlines. ΘΚΠ society > travel > air or space travel > transport by air > [noun] > public service airline > specific Skybus1919 K.L.M.1933 TWA1933 skytrain1971 1933 Meccano Mag. Mar. 193/1 A pilot flying on the K.L.M. route to Batavia. 1968 Listener 28 Nov. 704/3 KLM suggest you come to Amsterdam just to see the airport. K.M.T. n. Kuomintang. ΚΠ 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 May 270/4 Two months later Chiang struck again by excluding Communists from any higher posts in the K.M.T. 1969 J. M. Gullick Malaysia ii. 85 At one time the Chinese middle class gave its support to the Kuomintang, an effective if externally orientated nationalist movement, but the KMT was ground between .. British restrictions .. and .. communist penetration of the Chinese working class. 1972 ‘M. Hebden’ Killer for Chairman i. ix. 115 I last saw you in Canton... There was one of the K.M.T. generals still hiding there. K.O. n. (also k.o.) knock(ed) out (cf. kayo v. and n.). ΘΚΠ society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [adjective] > specific type of blow round1790 flush1812 sidewinding1848 knock-out1898 roundhouse1907 K.O.1922 society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > box [verb (transitive)] > knock down or out to knock (formerly also hit, etc.) out of time1821 to send to dorse1822 dorse1825 to knock out1883 to put out1895 stop1895 K.O.1922 kayo1923 starch1930 the world > movement > impact > striking > striking with specific thing > [noun] > with the hand > with the fist > knock-out knock-out1887 outer1898 Sunday punch1915 K.O.1922 kayo1933 the world > movement > impact > striking > striking with specific thing > strike with specific thing [verb (transitive)] > with the hand > with the fist > incapacitate by to knock outa1616 to knock (also beat, etc.) a person stupid1811 to knock (formerly also hit, etc.) out of time1821 out1896 K.O.1922 kayo1923 society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [noun] > knock-out or technical knockout > knock-out blow tie-up1818 knock-out1887 K.O.1922 kayo1933 1922 T. Burke London Spy 209 As a youth the ring attracted him... A few k.o.'s put an end to that. 1923 H. Cox Dogs & I xxii. 209 The Field Spaniel has received the ‘K.O.’ and taken the count! 1927 Observer 25 Dec. 12/6 His record..includes a k.o. victory over Paul Berlenbach. 1927 Observer 25 Dec. 12/6 Knut Hansen, who k.o. Phil Scott in the first round. 1928 Daily Express 25 June 17/7 Young Stanley..was then k.o. by a right swing to the jaw. 1951 ‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids viii. 142 Coker an' another chap was giving them the k.o. as they tripped. 1971 Weekend World (Johannesburg) 9 May 1/2 Morodi said he was not upset by the defeat—the first k.o. he has suffered in 70 fights. K.P. n. U.S. kitchen police(man). ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > group with special function or duty > [noun] > party for domestic duty kitchen police1879 K.P.1917 1917 D. C. Falls Army & Navy Information 84 K.P., Kitchen Police. A mild form of punishment. 1921 J. Dos Passos Three Soldiers i. 10 The men..filed by the great tin buckets at the door, out of which meat and potatoes were splashed into each plate by a sweating K.P. in blue denims. 1929 F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1930) 33 Before first call, six or more unfortunates crept out of bed and went on kitchen police... ‘K.P.’ is for good reason the most hated detail in the army. 1930 F. A. Pottle Stretchers 31 A cook or K.P. stands by to see that the dishes are decently scraped before they go into the pail. 1956 ‘B. Holiday’ & W. Dufty Lady sings Blues xviii. 162 After all the big personnel experts got together to figure out a job that was right for a city girl like me, I was cast for the part of Cinderella of Cottage No. 6. This was nothing but a fairy-tale name for permanent KP. 1973 Publishers Weekly 25 June 70/2 For an uncertain spell he struggles through the miserable childhood of ‘Norma Jean’ in a welter of secondhand conjectures—Mailer doing biographical KP. K.P.D. n. [Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands] German Communist Party. ΚΠ 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 280/2 The violent agitation conducted by the central committee of the K.P.D. in Berlin. 1935 C. Isherwood Mr. Norris changes Trains vi. 98 I am not a member of the Communist Party..I merely sympathize with the attitude of the K.P.D. to certain non-political problems. 1964 New Statesman 28 Feb. 332/1 Relations with Germany—and with the German Communist Party, the KPD—stood at the centre of the picture. k.p.h. n. kilometres per hour. ΚΠ 1966 G. B. Mair Kisses from Satan ix. 106 They were doing over a hundred k.p.h. on a snaky road. 1972 W. Garner Ditto, Brother Rat! xxiii. 172 The speedo needle crept past the 150 kph mark. K ration n. [ < the initial letter of the surname of Ancel Keys (1904–), American physiologist] a package of concentrated food. ΚΠ 1944 R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 283 We get American ‘K’ rations, with a few extras. 1967 ‘T. Carew’ Korea ii. 19 A K ration consisted of a tin of compressed meat hash, coffee, powdered milk, a fruit bar, cigarettes, chewing gum, and toilet paper. KWIC n. = keyword-in-context adj. at keyword n. Phrases. ΚΠ 1959 H. P. Luhn in IBM Corporation ASDD Rep. RC-127 (title) Keyword-in-context index for technical literature (KWIC index). 1967 N. S. M. Cox & M. W. Grose Organization Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer vi. 154 It has been decided not to produce a KWIC index at this stage. 1969 Computers & Humanities 3 166 An obvious prerequisite for this kind of dictionary construction is large key-word-in-context (KWIC) lists drawing on large samples of the language. Derivatives K.C.B.-ship n. and the like. ΚΠ 1881 W. Black Beautiful Wretch I. 24 [He] had got his K.C.B.-ship for long service in India. 1886 Athenæum 3 Apr. 456/3 In 1869 [he] accepted a K.C.M.G. ship in lieu of the peerage he had hoped for. K.C.B v. to invest with the order of K.C.B.Apparently an isolated use. ΚΠ 1892 Temple Bar Sept. 127 He was K.C.B.'d the other day. Draft additions June 2006 [ < the final letter of struck, past participle of strike v. (originally as graphic abbreviation in a scorecard marking system).] Baseball. = strike-out n. at strike v. Compounds. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > putting player out > actions K1861 double play1867 assist1877 put-out1882 force-out1896 rundown1908 pickoff1911 strike-out1911 tag1941 punch-out1973 1861 N.Y. Clipper 23 Mar. 388/2 We take the first three letters of the alphabet to designate the first three bases, and we use the first or last letter of the word we wish to use afterwards; thus, H, for home, K, for struck... Pearsall being put out on the fly by the right fielder, we record it with the letter F,..and Russell..striking out, we simply write the letter K. 1866 H. Chadwick Base Ball Player's Bk. of Ref. 56 The above is a complete record of the batting..and the fielding..and the explanation of the abbreviations used are as follows:..Smith..went out on three strikes, which is recorded by..the letter K to indicate how put out, K being the last letter of the word ‘struck’. 1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §677/10 K., score card indication for a strike-out, e.g. K1, K2 &c., the first, second &c. strike-out. 1948 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 8 Sept. 22/3 Walter Johnson..and Bob Feller with his record-setting total of 348 strikeouts..are the only modern-day hurlers to register 300 or more Ks in a single major league season. 1971 Daily News (Red Bluff, Calif.) 29 May 8/6 Tony O'Dell of Los Molinos had the best control ratio and also the most Ks. 1992 N. Ryan & J. Jenkins Miracle Man viii. 100 Danny Heep of the Mets, a former teammate on the Astros, became my four thousandth K. Draft additions April 2011 Geology. [ < initial letter of German Kreide Cretaceous.] In form K. The Cretaceous period. ΚΠ 1888 R. Brown Our Earth & its Story II. 91 (caption) K, Cretaceous beds. 1920 J. L. Ridgway Prepar. Illustr. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. ii. 63 The standard colours used..Cretaceous (K), olive-green or rainette-green. 1992 Sci. News 25 Jan. 56/1 An ancient Caribbean splashdown at the boundary between the Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T) periods. 2002 C. L. Hotton in J. H. Hartman et al. Hell Creek Formation & Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary xviii. 481 Of the most abundant K species, only Tricolpites microreticulatus declines significantly in abundance. Draft additions March 2006 K n. slang ketamine, used as a recreational drug; cf. Special K n. at special adj., adv., and n. Compounds 2. ΚΠ 1984 E. L. Abel Dict. Drug Abuse Terms 90 K, ketamine. 1992 Independent 2 Apr. 5/1 Abuse of the anaesthetic called ketamine, which is also known on the street as ‘vitamin K’ and ‘K’, is being monitored by the Home Office. 2003 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 9 May b1 Ketamine, or ‘K’ or ‘Special K’ is an anesthetic used by doctors and veterinarians. Its action is called dissociative, which means the mind seems to separate from the body, leaving the user in a detached, hallucinogenic state. Draft additions June 2007 KBO n. Astronomy = Kuiper belt object n. at Kuiper belt n. Compounds. ΚΠ 1996 Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 28 1081/1 Because Centaurs typically survive only a few Myr before being ejected from the solar system by one of the giant planets, their numbers should be small compared with the number of KBO's. 2002 New Scientist 14 Dec. 33/2 These discs are produced by collisions between icy objects similar to the KBOs. Draft additions August 2007 K-hole n. slang a trance-like state induced by excessive consumption of ketamine as a recreational drug, typically characterized by temporary paralysis, disorientation, hallucinations, or a sense of disassociation, and likened to falling into a hole; (also in extended use) any kind of trance-like state. ΚΠ 1992 Out Summer 49/1 The drug..produces in some a pleasant disorientation and in others a frightening, insulating numbness (called K-holes). 1999 Village Voice (N.Y.) 8 June 35/1 Repetitious dialing leaves you in a trancelike state... Last year, I fell into this telephonic K hole and twice hung up a ringing Ticketmaster line. 2001 S. Walton Out of It (2002) iv. 85 He had spent the time luxuriating in a K-hole so deep it was practically a bottomless pit. Draft additions March 2020 KPI n. = key performance indicator n. at key n.¹ and adj. Compounds 3. ΚΠ 1989 Planning Higher Educ. 18 7 Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a detailed list of measurements the institution considers key to monitoring and evaluating enrollment management strategies. 1999 J. Prichard & L. Jordan Maximising Performance in Insurance Operations vii. 186 You will need to establish targets against each KPI and consider who..should be accountable for achieving them. 2008 Guardian 9 Oct. (Data Managem. Suppl.) 11/1 Most companies have the internal knowledge to define KPIs but often fail to define valid KPIs that can be meaningfully utilised. Draft additions April 2011 K-T n. (also K/T, KT) Geology Cretaceous-Tertiary, used attributively with reference to: (a) the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Palaeogene period (lower Tertiary), visible worldwide in the stratigraphic record and characterized by high levels of iridium thought to originate from an impacting asteroid; (b) a mass extinction of 65 million years ago associated with this boundary, during which the (non-avian) dinosaurs and many other species died out.The Tertiary is now not generally recognized as a single period, being divided into the Palaeogene and the Neogene. The boundary also marks the division between the Mesozoic era and the Cenozoic era. ΚΠ 1981 Science 18 Dec. 1341/1 A strong Ir abundance anomaly at the palynological K-T boundary. 1985 New Scientist 8 Aug. 25/2 One characteristic..seemed to buffer certain groups of bivalves and gastropods against the effects of the K-T event, and that was the geographic extent of the whole group. 1991 Amer. Scientist Mar. 172/3 The brimstone that helped demolish Sodom and Gomorrah could have caused the Permotriassic and K-T extinctions as well. 1993 Sci. News 3 Apr. 213/1 Zircon crystals found in K-T sediments from Colorado. 1997 Micropaleontology 43 286/1 The occurrence of intact coccospheres in a clay layer probably at least some 20 cm above the K/T boundary..would suggest that these species..survived the boundary event(s). 2002 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 31 Jan. 25 The so-called KT impact which killed off the dinosaurs. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1901; most recently modified version published online June 2022). > see also also refers to : K-comb. form < n.c1000 see also
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Kn.

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> see also