It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for January 20th.

Today's word is Kindred, spelled K-I-N-D-R-E-D.

Kindred is an adjective.

To say that two people or things are Kindred is to say that they are of a similar nature or character or that they have the same

ancestry. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Kurdel, Idaho Post Falls Press.

I've always loved to read long before I began to write,

prolific writer Stephen King explains.

If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write, simple as that.

Another kindred soul, Robert Louis Stevenson, I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. The two passions are so connected in my being.

Family, both ancestral and in spirit, is what puts the kin in kindred. This word comes from the old English

noun for kinship, cunradin, which combines kun, meaning kin and radin meaning

condition.

Kindred first entered English as a noun during the Middle Ages.

That noun which can refer to a group of related individuals or to one's own relatives

gave rise to the adjective kindred in the 14th century.

Other words, akin to kin, include kinfolk and kinsfolk, kinship, kinsmen, and kinsfolk kinship kinsmen and kinswoman.

With your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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