Kith means friends and acquaintances, and survives in one phrase. Kith and kin, neither kith nor kin, among his kith.
It appears almost nowhere except kith and kin, where kith is the friends and kin the family, though most people who use the phrase take both halves to mean relatives. The word is related to the old sense of couth, meaning known.
1nounkithFriends and acquaintances, in the phrase with kin.
“The whole village came, kith and kin, to celebrate the wedding.”
kith is a company.
Old English cyththu means knowledge or acquaintance, related to cunnan, to know.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵneh₃- — to know
Proto-Germanic
*kunþiþō — knowledge, acquaintance
Old English
cȳþþ
Middle English
kitthe — kinsmen, relations
English, today
kith
Built from
From Middle English kitthe (“kinsmen, relations”), from Old English cȳþþ, cȳþþu (“kinship, kinsfolk, relations”), from Proto-Germanic kunþiþō (“knowledge, acquaintance”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵneh₃- (“to know”). Cognate with Old High German kundida (“kith”), kundī (“knowledge”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌹 (“knowledge”). More at couth, -th.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire