Pronunciations
| kina | (KEE-nah) | listen |
Definitions
n. A religious poem of lament commemorating the tragedies of Tisha B’Av, the date on which the First and Second Temples were destroyed.
n. Envy, jealousy.
Example Sentences
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"Tisha B'Av is coming up, so we have to pull out our books of kinot."
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"The tenth commandment, 'thou shall not covet,' is rooted in a rejection of kina."
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"They're sitting on the floor saying kinot." (Glinert)
Languages of Origin
- Textual Hebrew
- Yiddish
Etymology
first sense: TH קינה kina 'lament' (plural: קינות kinot) > Y קינה kine
second sense: TH קנאה kin'a 'envy' > Y קינאה kine
- Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
- North America
- Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
- The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
Who Uses This
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Dictionaries
Alternative Spellings
kine, kinot
Notes
kinat khinam is 'hatred/jealousy without a reason'.
The first sense is often used in the plural for a collection of such poems, 'kinot'.
See also kine-sine.
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