# There's a "Kyfe"??
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 28, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134 "2001-02-28T01:41:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/1 "2001-02-28T01:41:28Z")
What does the word “kyfe” mean?
I’d give you context, but I seem to have lost the place in the book where I saw it. ☹
IIRC it had something to do with the behavior/attitude/posture of a fish…
I’ve tried some dictionary websites like [Yourdictionary.com](http://Yourdictionary.com), but I couldn’t seem to find it.
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### Author:  [@Deimos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deimos)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/2 "2001-02-28T01:52:13Z")
this is probably wrong, but i always thought that “kyfe” (sp?) is synonymous with “swipe” or “steal”.
yes ladies and gents, that’s a WAG if i ever saw one!
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### Author:  [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/3 "2001-02-28T02:00:28Z")
According to [this site](http://www.j31.co.uk/kiveton.html) ‘kyfe’ is Anglo-Saxon meaning dish or hollow vessel.
From [the pseudo-dictionary](http://www.pseudodictionary.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.pl?action=browse&range=k) ‘kife’ means something insufficient or unpleasurable, while ‘kifed’ means stolen.
No fish.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/4 "2001-02-28T05:10:39Z")
A _ki **p** e_ is a basket, usually made of woven osier (willow) used to catch fish.
The **OED** does not have any words that begin _kyf-_, _kyph-_, _kyv-_, _kif-_, or _kiph-_.
The Anglo-Saxon word _kife_ cited by **jcgmoi** has morphed into _kive_ in English.
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### Author:  [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2001, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/5 "2001-02-28T06:45:00Z")
If you look up “kyfe” on [OneLook,](http://www.onelook.com/) you’re directed to the Hobson Jobson Dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms, available at [Bibliomania](http://www.bibliomania.com). (Sorry, Bibliomania uses frames and I couldn’t link to the actual page. You’ll have to search for it yourself, or go through OneLook)
It says:
> [@](#):
>
> KYFE, n. One often meets with this word (Ar. kaif) in books about the Levant, to indicate the absolute enjoyment of the _dolce far niente_…But in fact a man’s kaif is his ‘howness,’ i.e. what pleases him, his humour; and this passes into the sense of gaiety caused by hashish, &c…
The quote he cites spells “kyfe” yet another way, “keif,” and defines it as the “first degree of intoxication.”
Still nothing to do with fish, unless you’re licking the backs of them to reach _kyfe_. Or is that toads?
[Homer]“I’m not NOT licking toads!”[/Homer]
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### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/6 "2001-03-01T16:30:19Z")
Many thanks, folks! I was worried about being stuck without a definition for a while there. It seems like the most reasonable explanation (because it’s the only one that has the word dealing with fish) is the writer using kyfe as spelled here and in the site jcgmoi mentioned with the definition of a vessel used to catch fish that tomndebb mentioned. Then my own addlepated wits get in the way and I somehow misunderstood it as the behavior or attitude of the fish. Thanks again!
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-kyfe/56134/7 "2001-03-01T17:04:36Z")
Deimos isn’t remembering wrong either, although it’s not the context the OP saw it in - “keifing” or “kyfing” stuff was a common slang term when I was a kid, used approximately like “swipe”. I’m not sure how it would be spelled, since I never saw it written, and I have no idea of the etymology.