kite
n. countablen. a light frame covered with paper or cloth that flies in the wind when attached to a string. You fly a kite for fun on a breezy day.
n. a lightweight structure of fabric or paper stretched over a frame, designed to be lifted and sustained by the wind while tethered to a line.
The children fly a red kite in the park.
We spent the afternoon on the beach flying a large diamond-shaped kite.
The vibrant kite danced against the grey sky, its long tail trailing behind like a ribbon in the wind.
The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (“a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)”), from Old English cȳta (“kite; bittern”), from Proto-West Germanic kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-Germanic kūts (“bird of prey”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (“to cry, screech”). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (“kite; bird of prey”), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (“owling”) (modern German Kauz (“owl”)). Possibly a doublet of coot. Sense 3 (“lightweight toy”) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird. The verb is derived from the noun.
Uncertain; possibly: * from Middle English kit, kitte (“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”), possibly from Middle Dutch kitte (“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutch kit (“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown; or from Old Norse kýta (“bag, stomach (of a fish)”), from Proto-Germanic kūtiz. from Middle English kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re (“kidney; region of the kidneys, loins”)), possibly from Old English cyde, cydde (“belly”), cwiþ (“belly; womb”), from Proto-Germanic kweþuz (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European gʷet- or gwet- (“rounding, swelling; entrails, stomach”), doubtfully from gʷu-, *gū- (“to bend, bow, curve, distend, vault”). The English word is cognate with Icelandic kviði (“womb”), kviður (“stomach”), kýta (“stomach of a fish; roe”), Middle Low German kūt (“entrails”), West Flemish kijte, kiete (“fleshy part of the body”).
Borrowed from Coptic ⲕⲓⲧⲉ (kite), from Demotic Egyptian qt, from Egyptian qdt.