knack

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English knakke (“a trick”),^[2][3][4] of uncertain origin.^[2][5][6] Most dictionaries take it as probably the same word as an obsolete knack, a sharp blow or sound,^{[7][8][9][10][11]} which is knak,^[4][5] of imitative origin,^[7][4][12] like Dutch knak (“crack, snap”),^[8][6] German knacken (“to crack”)^[5][12] and Middle High German knacken (“to make a cracking noise”).^[4] The American Heritage Dictionary derives it borrowed from Middle Dutch cnacken (“to strike, crack”),^[3] and Hoad suggests it may come immediately from Dutch or Low German knak.^[11] The OED calls its origin obscure: it agrees in age and form with the sound word, but the link in meaning is unclear.^[6] Barnhart compares the German verb in its sense "to solve a puzzle".^[2] Klein compares Danish knage, Swedish knaka and knock.^[12] Brewer called the derivation "a great puzzle".^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A trick or device, especially a crafty or deceitful one: about 1369, in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess ("She ne used no such knakkes smale").^[6][2][14] Chaucer uses the word three times, always in the plural.^[15] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From a trick, often a mean one, the word came to mean the "trick" of doing something well, a skill or aptitude, first recorded in Mulcaster's Positions in 1581; the OED calls it the leading sense today.^[6][2][5] From 1674 it was also used of a personal habit of speech or action.^[6] In the 16th century a knack was also a concrete thing, an ingenious toy or trinket (about 1544), a delicacy (1548–1642), or a clever literary conceit (1605–62);^[6] the trinket survives in the reduplicated knick-knack.^[14][3] Skeat traced the senses from a snap, through a snap of the fingers and a jester's trick, to dexterity and a trifle.^[16] In local use it was also the last sheaf of the harvest made into a figure.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1369 – a trick or device, often a deceitful one.^[6][2]
• c. 1544 – an ingenious toy or trinket.^[6]
• 1581 – a special skill or aptitude.^[6][2]
• 1605 – a clever literary conceit (obsolete by 1662).^[6]
• 1674 – a personal habit of acting or speaking.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A special ability or talent for something, often one that is hard to explain or teach: She has a knack for remembering names.^[3][4][10]
2. A clever or skilful way of doing something: There's a knack to opening this jar.^[3][4][10]
3. A personal habit of acting or speaking in a certain way.^[6][17]
4. (archaic) A clever trick or stratagem.^[4][6]
5. (archaic) An ingenious device; a toy or knick-knack.^[4][3][6]

Related words

• knock
• knap
• knick-knack

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press