Kith refers to your friends, neighbors, and familiar acquaintances, the people you know well but aren't related to by blood.

You've probably heard the phrase kith and kin, which means “friends and family” or “everyone close to you.” If a medieval village was threatened, people would protect their kith and kin, meaning both their relatives and their fellow villagers. When a family moves across the country, they leave behind their kith and kin, all the familiar faces that made a place feel like home.

The word has an old-fashioned, even archaic feel to it. You won't hear people say “I'm meeting my kith at the park” the way they'd say “I'm meeting my friends.” But kith captures something friends doesn't quite convey: that web of familiar people who share your community and daily life. Your postal carrier, your librarian, your teammates, the family down the street, these people form your kith, the human landscape of your everyday world.