Etymologically
Log in

knot

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word knot

Pronunciation

  • /nɒt/, /nɑt/[1]

knot1 interlaced cord

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1000
Inherited from
Old English cnotta via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *knuttô

Etymology

The interlaced cord is inherited from Middle English knotte, also knot,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English cnotta (“knot, fastening; a knotty point”),[5][6][7][8] from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô.[1][7][9][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian knotta, Middle Low German knutte (“knot, knob”), Dutch knot and Middle High German knotze (“knob, knot”),[8][6][7] and, with a different consonant, with Old High German knoto and knodo, whence German Knoten.[6][9][3] The OED adds that Old Norse knútr (“knot, knob”) may be connected, though its vowel is a difficulty.[6][7][9] Barnhart traces the Germanic form to Proto-Indo-European *gneut-,[8] and Wiktionary probably to *gnod- (“to bind”).[1] The verb knit was formed from the same Germanic base,[6][3][10][11] and Ayto relates knoll and perhaps knob.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

An intertwining of rope or cord made to fasten things together: Old English, in Ælfric's Homilies, about 1000.[6][8] Bosworth-Toller also records the figurative sense of a knotty point or difficulty.[5][7] Barnhart finds the spelling cnot in place names by 1154, and cnotte about 1200.[8]

Semantic evolution

Ayto takes the underlying Germanic meaning to be "round lump", which shows in English only from Middle English.[10] The word was a symbol of the bond of marriage from the early 13th century,[7] and Mapping Metaphor places this link between ties and marriage in 1200–1249.[12] A hard lump is recorded from the 13th century, and a thickened part of a plant and a small group or cluster of people from the 14th;[9][7] an ornamental bow worn on dress from about 1400,[7][6] and a design of crossing lines from about 1400, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.[6] From 1502 a knot was also an intricately laid-out flower bed, now chiefly a dialect word.[6][13] The unit of speed comes from the knots tied at equal distances on the log line: the number that ran out while a sand-glass ran gave the ship's speed.[6][14][7][11] The knot on the line is recorded from 1633, and by 1748 knot was loosely used for a nautical mile, as in "20 knots an hour";[6] at a rate of knots, very fast, is colloquial from 1892.[6][11] The verb, from the noun, is dated about 1440 by Barnhart, the mid-15th century by Etymonline and before 1547 by the OED.[8][7][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English cnotta, a knot; also a difficulty.[8][6][5]
  • 1154 – cnot in place names.[8]
  • early 13th century – the bond of marriage.[7]
  • c. 1320 – kinds of knot, such as the running knot.[6][2]
  • 14th century – a lump in a plant; a small group of people.[9][7]
  • c. 1400 – an ornamental bow; a design of crossing lines.[6][7]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to tie in a knot.[8]
  • 1502 – a flower bed laid out in a design.[6]
  • 1633 – a knot on a ship's log line.[6]
  • 1748 – a nautical mile per hour.[6]
  • 1892 – at a rate of knots, very fast.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A fastening made by looping and tying a rope, string or cord on itself or to something else: Tie a firm knot in the end of the thread.
  2. A particular way of tying such a fastening, such as a reef knot or a bowline.
  3. A tangle in hair, thread or the like.
  4. A decorative bow of ribbon or braid.
  5. A small close group of people or things: A knot of fans waited at the stage door.
  6. A tie or bond, especially that of marriage.
  7. A difficult problem.
  8. A hard lump in plant tissue, as on a tree trunk where a branch grew.
  9. (nautical) A unit of speed equal to one nautical mile an hour.

Verb

  1. To tie in or fasten with a knot.
  2. To form a knot or knots; to become tangled.
  3. To unite closely or intricately; to entangle.
  4. To furrow or knit the brows.

Word family

  • knotty
  • knothole
  • knotter
  • knotless
  • knotlike

knot2 sandpiper

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1422–3

Etymology

The sandpiper is of unknown origin.[6][15][16][9][3] It is found from the 15th century, and in the 17th it varied with the forms knat and gnat.[6][9] The Shorter Oxford suggests that the name may imitate the bird's call,[17] while the American Heritage Dictionary calls it of Scandinavian origin and the MED queries an Old Norse source;[18][2] Skeat and Mayhew compare Danish knot (“sandpiper”).[13] Camden's conjecture, followed by Drayton and kept in Linnaeus's species name for it, that the bird was named after King Cnut, supposedly because it came from Denmark, has no historical basis.[6][19][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The red-breasted sandpiper: an account of 1422–3 cited by the MED lists twelve knots beside curlews and stints,[2] and the OED's first record is a bill of fare of 1452.[6][2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 15th century.[15]

Semantic evolution

A gloss of before 1425 seems to use the word for a jackdaw, translating Latin monedula.[2] Drayton's line "The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old" spread the story of King Cnut.[13] In the north of Ireland the name was given to the ringed plover.[20][13]

Timeline

  • 1422–3 – knots in an account of birds.[2]
  • 1452 – the red-breasted sandpiper, in a bill of fare.[6]
  • 17th century – the variant spellings knat and gnat.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Either of two sandpipers (Calidris canutus and C. tenuirostris) that breed in the Arctic and winter on warmer coasts.
  • knit
  • knoll
  • knob
  • knout
  • node
  • Gordian knot

Usage notes

Because knot already means "nautical mile per hour", the American Heritage Dictionary advises that a ship travels at ten knots, not ten knots an hour.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
  13. ^ a b c d e Skeat, Walter W.; Mayhew, A. L. (1914), A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  19. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  21. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Related etymologies

  • flee · also from Old English
  • doom · also from Old English
  • glimpse · also from Old English
  • eighteen · also from Old English
  • hawk · also from Old English
  • temper · also from Old English
  • sting · also from Old English
  • font · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Knot.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/knot. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·