Wednesday, April 13, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge: K

Kite! Sometimes I’m out of ideas so I just pick random words I happen to be reading.


Any birders out there probably know that kite isn’t just something you fly at the end of a string but a kind of bird. Apparently the former was named after the latter when it came out in the seventeenth century because it hovers in the air like a bird. Why that particular bird, I don’t know.

Kite the bird comes from the Old English, and it’s thought to come from the sound the bird makes (don’t ask me how; it makes no sense to me). Interestingly enough (shut up, I think it’s interesting), “go fly a kite” comes from a song Bing Crosby sang. Just “fly a kite” is over a century older, appearing in 1805 meaning to “raise money by issuing commercial paper on nonexistent funds”, and it’s where we get check kiting from.

Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

13 comments:

  1. The bird kind of kites have wide wingspans and soar or hover on the wind, dipping and diving to catch prey. The first paper things on the end of strings probably acted in a similar fashion complete with the dipping and diving so they named the toy after the bird. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

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  2. I'd like to say something witty but I can't this morning :) Interesting post and I like Kate's explanation too. Have a lovely day.

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  3. So even back then people were writing bad checks? Although printing money on non-existent funds is what the government does.

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  4. I don't recognise the phrase 'check kiting' - learn something new every day :). I always wondered is kite came from the bird.
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  5. Because that particular bird has a tendency to get tangled in trees whilst pretty bows and ribbons dangle from its tail, perhaps?

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  6. I've actually always wondered where the term check kiting came from. My sister works in the fraud department of a bank, and uses that term a lot. I never knew why...until now. Thanks!

    Also, Kate's theory is excellent.

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  7. Charlie Brown's quite familiar with kites... particularly getting his caught in those pesky kite eating trees. You'd think it would occur to him to have the kite eating tree cut down...

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  8. I was much older when I learned that a kite was a bird, too. And then there's the geometric shape...

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  9. Kite used to be a more catchall term for birds than it is now.

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  10. What I remember is "Now Chill the kite brings home the night that Mang the bat set free." from the jungle books. Finding Eliza

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  11. Ha! Some things never change. Just look how our government prints money today.

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  12. I've heard of a kite, but didn't know a kite was named after it.

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  13. I wondered about kiting checks. I knew kite was the name of a bird but I've never seen one.

    Susan Says

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Please validate me.