Etymologically
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knight

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈnaɪ̯t/, /ˈnɐɪ̯t/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English kniht, inherited from Old English cniht (“boy, youth, servant”),[2][3][4][5] from Proto-West Germanic *knehtą, of unknown origin,[4][3] cognate with Old Frisian kniucht, Dutch knecht (“servant”) and German Knecht (“servant, farmhand”).[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A boy or youth, a sense found only in Old English (about 893).[6] Barnhart has Old English cēap-cneht, a bought youth, a slave, in the earliest Latin–English glossaries, about 700.[2]

Semantic evolution

An attendant or servant is from about 950, and a military follower of a king or lord from before 1100.[6][3] Etymonline says the word took on a specific military sense in the Hundred Years War and rose until it became a rank of the nobility in the 16th century;[3] in modern Britain a knight holds a non-hereditary title conferred by the sovereign, with the prefix Sir.[6][7] The knight of the shire, a county's member of Parliament, is from 1399.[6] The chess piece is also called a knight.[8][7] Word Origins notes the knight in shining armour (mid-20th century; 1965 in the OED) and, from the 1970s, the stock-market white knight who saves a company from a hostile bid.[9][6] The verb, to make a knight, is from the early 13th century.[3][5] Middle English sometimes had the plural knighten.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – cēap-cneht, a bought youth.[2]
  • c. 893 – a boy, youth.[6]
  • c. 950 – a servant.[6]
  • before 1100 – a military follower.[6]
  • early 13th century – the verb.[3]
  • 1399 – knight of the shire.[6]
  • 16th century – a rank conferred by the sovereign.[6][3]
  • 1965 – knight in shining armour.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. In the Middle Ages, a mounted soldier serving a feudal lord, or a gentleman-soldier raised to that rank after serving as page and squire.
  2. In Britain, a man given a non-hereditary rank by the sovereign, entitled to be called Sir.
  3. A man devoted to the service of a lady or a cause; a champion.
  4. A chess piece shaped like a horse's head.

Verb

  1. To make a person a knight.

Word family

  • knightly
  • knightliness
  • knightless
  • unknighted

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press