kenning

IPA: kˈɛnɪŋ

(obsolete) Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea.
(obsolete) The range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
As little as one can discriminate or recognize; a small portion, a little.
(zoology, obsolete, rare) A chalaza or tread of an egg (a spiral band attaching the yolk of the egg to the eggshell); a cicatricula.
(poetry) A metaphorical compound or phrase, used especially in Germanic poetry (Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way.
(Northern England) A dry measure equivalent to half a bushel; a container with that capacity.
A surname.

Examples of "kenning" in Sentences

I find myself curiously reluctant to construct a kenning for myself, actually.
The kenning, a metaphorical compound-word or phrase, is a descriptive stand-in for a noun.
I like 'Mighty-sinewed chemist's daughter' myself, though I suspect that's not a kenning because it's, y'know.
In literature, a kenning is a magic poetic phrase, a figure of speech, substituted for the usual name of a person or thing.
These "clues" in turn suggest the Anglo-Saxon/Old Norse kenning, reminding us that Morgan was a fine translator of Beowulf.
I think I'd go with Kevin Crossley-Holland's view that a kenning is a condensed riddle, though that's really saying much the same thing as a riddle being an extended kenning.
The word kenning is derived from the Old Norse phrase kenna ett vid, which means “to express a thing in terms of another”, and is found throughout Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic literature.
A kenning is actually instead of a name, rather than in addition to (as I just discovered by looking it up with excessive help from Catzilla): "a figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle."