knighthood

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English knighthod,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English cnihthād (“boyhood, youth”),^[5][6][7][3] which is formed from cniht (“boy, lad”), the source of knight, and the suffix -hād, the source of -hood.^[5][6][8] In Middle English the word followed the new sense of knight,^[5] and Etymonline thinks the sense "rank of a knight" was probably formed afresh from the two English elements.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyhood, youth, the period between childhood and manhood: in Old English, in Alfred's translation of Boethius,^[5][7] dated about 893 in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Old English sense "youth" went with the old meaning of cniht, a boy or servant, and did not survive Old English.^[5][8][6] When knight came to mean a mounted warrior of rank, knighthood became the rank or dignity of a knight, first before 1300 in King Horn,^[5][6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise dates this sense to the 13th century.^[2] Langland's Piers Plowman (1377) uses it both for the qualities proper to a knight and for knights as a body,^[5] and the Wycliffite Bible used it to render Latin militia, military service or a host, a use that was gone by 1552.^[5] Later developments were the ceremony of knighting (1711) and, with a possessive, a form of address, first in Scott (1828).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the character or dignity of a knight", quoting Spenser.^[10] The Shorter Oxford also records it for the award of this rank.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 893 – boyhood, youth (Old English only).^[9][7]
• before 1300 – the rank or dignity of a knight.^[5][6]
• c. 1325 – the profession or calling of a knight.^[5]
• 1377 – the qualities proper to a knight, chivalry; knights collectively.^[5]
• c. 1384 – military service, warfare, rendering Latin militia (obsolete by 1552).^[5]
• before 1616 – a person holding the rank, a knight, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.^[5]
• 1711 – the ceremony of knighting.^[5]
• 1828 – with a possessive, as a form of address.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rank, dignity or profession of a knight; the title conferred as an honour: She was offered a knighthood for services to science.^{[2][11][12][8]}
2. The qualities that befit a knight; chivalry.^{[2][11][12][5]}
3. Knights considered together as a class or body.^{[2][11][12][5]}
4. (obsolete, Old English only) Boyhood, youth.^[5][8][7]

Related words

• knight
• -hood

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins