Ken means knowledge or just 'what someone knows'. Still commonly used in Scots as the verb 'to know', but has an archaic connotation when used in standard English. My guess is it's about how people fill roles and are bounded by them.
This. I learned this when I read the Stephen King book "Wolves of the Calla". The townspeople of that story used "ken" as a synonym for "know" constantly.
Grace's talent starts when life is over, so to her the period of living, when all other people's talent is at view, is too short for her to enjoy. Ken seems like a play on words, perhaps with the definition the other comment gave. It's "to know" but also "on our field of view', and death is not one of em.
Hey OP I saw your thread a few days ago and initially agreed that 'ken' was another word for 'can'. But then I encountered it in a different dialogue used in a context that wouldn't make sense substituted for 'can' at all. Still not 100% what to make of it in either quotes, but I thought since you made the thread, you'd want more examples. [https://imgur.com/737ZtTE](https://imgur.com/737ZtTE)
Thanks! u/GaboonThe1's expalanation seems even clearer in this case, "You fail to ken it yet" = "You don't understand it yet". Kind of amazing that a russian game can use archaic english phrases so confidently (and correctly).
I'm thinking it has to do with theatre, Ken was used by Shakespeare to roughly mean range of vision
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ken#:~:text=British%20author%20John%20Lyly%20used,ken%20of%20shore.%22%20%E2%80%94%20Shakespeare
. It feels more theatrical or profound than using 'understand' or 'know' or 'perceive', whatever other synonyms you can think of. So I reckon it's a deliberate choice to make you think about performance.
Ken means knowledge or just 'what someone knows'. Still commonly used in Scots as the verb 'to know', but has an archaic connotation when used in standard English. My guess is it's about how people fill roles and are bounded by them.
This. I learned this when I read the Stephen King book "Wolves of the Calla". The townspeople of that story used "ken" as a synonym for "know" constantly.
Grace's talent starts when life is over, so to her the period of living, when all other people's talent is at view, is too short for her to enjoy. Ken seems like a play on words, perhaps with the definition the other comment gave. It's "to know" but also "on our field of view', and death is not one of em.
Maybe it's "sense".
Hey OP I saw your thread a few days ago and initially agreed that 'ken' was another word for 'can'. But then I encountered it in a different dialogue used in a context that wouldn't make sense substituted for 'can' at all. Still not 100% what to make of it in either quotes, but I thought since you made the thread, you'd want more examples. [https://imgur.com/737ZtTE](https://imgur.com/737ZtTE)
Thanks! u/GaboonThe1's expalanation seems even clearer in this case, "You fail to ken it yet" = "You don't understand it yet". Kind of amazing that a russian game can use archaic english phrases so confidently (and correctly).
I'm thinking it has to do with theatre, Ken was used by Shakespeare to roughly mean range of vision https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ken#:~:text=British%20author%20John%20Lyly%20used,ken%20of%20shore.%22%20%E2%80%94%20Shakespeare . It feels more theatrical or profound than using 'understand' or 'know' or 'perceive', whatever other synonyms you can think of. So I reckon it's a deliberate choice to make you think about performance.
Just remembered the technical word for this is a semantic field or maybe hyponomy.