Plural of kite; flying toys made of paper or fabric stretched over a frame, or large birds of prey with long wings.
From Old English 'cyta,' a bird of prey. The flying toy meaning emerged later, likely named after the bird because it soars and dips in the sky like the bird does.
The ancient Chinese were flying kites over 2,000 years ago for both fun and military signaling, and Benjamin Franklin famously used a kite in a thunderstorm to discover that lightning is electricity—but that experiment was incredibly dangerous and he was lucky to survive.
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