Etymologically
Log in

knack

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 00:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

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]

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