Sc. and n. dial. Obs. (Sometimes as two words.) Forms: see WHAT pron. and KIN sb.1; also 5 what skynnes. [f. WHAT a.1 + KIN sb.1 6 b. In later use Sc.; cf. WHAT’N.]
1. Interrogative or exclamatory: Of what kind; what kind or sort of; what.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 963. Tell me … Howgat and wit quatkinthing, I sal couer þi saghteling.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 771. Quat-kyn þyng may be þat lambe, Þat þe wolde wedde vnto hys vyf?
13[?]. Gosp. Nicodemus (G.), 28. We wate wele Ioseph was a wright,… and mari vs menes his moder hight, we, whatkin goddes er þise?
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xvi. 76. If ȝe will wit whatkyn letters þai vse, here ȝe may here þam.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., II. Prol. 1. Now haf ȝhe herd on qwhatkyn wyse I haf contenyt þis tretyis.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 592. Quhat kin a fallow was that ane?
1561. Winȝet, Bk. Questions, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 60. Quha declaris expreslie quhatkin a faith thai haif in God.
β. 13[?]. Cursor M., 3687 (Gött.). ‘Sir,… þi mete es graid.’ ‘And quatkines mete?’ ‘sir, venisun.’ Ibid., 10442. Ne wate þu noght … Quatkines a fest it es to day?
a. 1450. Myrc, Par. Pr., 1526. Take gode hede on hys de-gre, Of what skynnes lyuynge þat he be.
1457. Harding, Chron., in Engl. Hist. Rev. (1912), Oct., 751. To spye … whatkyns passage wer for an hoste to ryde.
2. Relative: That kind of … which, such … as; usually in generalized sense (sometimes with so or soever): Whatever.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lv. 10 [lvi. 9]. In what-kin dai I cal the nou, Loke, I knew that mi God art þou.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 515. Men clepid men of holi Chirche may … do what kynne sinne, what kynne tresoun, likeþ hem.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, I. vii. 14. Slike one & so grete he is, whatkyns or so mykill none odyr is, no neuer may be.
a. 1450. Myrc, Par. Pr., 210. On what skynnes maner so hyt be wroȝt, Dedly synne hyt ys forthe broght.
