Hm. Does the word "toadstool" count as a kenning?
@Felthry Surely it does?
@pillowcat It's not something we'd ever thought of before, generally we only think of kennings in the context of germanic poetry, not everyday language. It's a wonderfully evocative word though.
long (650 char), what a kenning is and examples (brief mention of violence)
@IceWolf @pillowcat It's a method of word formation that is, as far as we (that is, me and rose, not people in general) know, unique to germanic languages, commonly used in epic poetry and well known from things like beowulf and the nordic sagas.
It's no longer common today, but examples might be saying "skyfire" for lightning, or one common one in ancient literature is "battle-juice" for spilled blood. Kennings aren't generally used to make words for things that didn't have a word before, rather they're for poetic effect, to make things fit the meter of the poem and also just to give it that poetic sound with fancy unconventional phrasings.
long (650 char), what a kenning is and examples (brief mention of violence)
@Felthry @pillowcat Ahhh, /neat!/ *swishes tail*
@Felthry @pillowcat Huh, what's a kenning?