E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Kin, Kind.
“King. But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 2.
Kin or kinsman is a relative by marriage or blood more distant than father and son.
1
Kind means of the same sort of genus, as man-kind or man-genus.
2
Hamlet says he is more than kin to Claudius (as he was step-son), but still he is not of the same kind, the same class. He is not a bird of the same feather as the king.
