ken / ken/ • n. [in sing.] one's range of knowledge or sight: such determination is beyond my ken.• v. (ken·ning ; past and past part. kenned or kent / kent/ ) [tr.] Scot. & N. English know: d'ye ken anyone who can boast of that?ORIGIN: Old English cennan ‘tell, make known,’ of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German kennen ‘know, be acquainted with,’ from an Indo-European root shared by can¹ and know. Current senses of the verb date from Middle English; the noun from the mid 16th cent.

ken †make known OE.; (arch., dial.) know XIII. OE. cennan = OS. kennian (Du. kennen), (O)HG. kennen, ON. kenna, Goth. kannjan, f. Gmc. * kann-know, CAN2. Prop. causative, ‘make known’, which was the only use in OE. and Gothic, but in Gmc. langs. gen. it acquired the sense ‘know’ at an early period; in Eng. this use may be immed. due to Norse; in Sc. it has displaced knaw, KNOW.
Hence ken sb. †measure of distance at sea; range of vision or perception. XVI.