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knowledge

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈnɒl.ɪdʒ/, US /ˈnɑː.lɪdʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English knowlege, knawlage, earlier cnawlece,[2][3] probably from the Middle English verb knowlechen “to acknowledge”,[4][3][5] from an Old English compound recorded only in the noun cnāwelǣċing,[4][5] formed on cnāwan (“to know”) and -lǣċan,[4][6] from the suffix that gave -lock in wedlock.[4][2] Etymonline calls the second element obscure, perhaps Scandinavian.[2] The earliest form, knaulage, was northern.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Acknowledgement of a superior, honor, worship: early 12th century.[2][3] Hoad dates the word to the 13th century, with the senses “confession” and “acquaintance”.[4]

Semantic evolution

The earliest senses go with the verb, acknowledging and confessing, and are obsolete.[7][5] From the late 14th century the word meant the capacity for knowing, familiarity, awareness of a fact, news, learning, and an organized body of facts or teachings.[2] The sexual sense, as in carnal knowledge, is from about 1400,[2] and the verb knowledge meant both “to acknowledge” (about 1200) and “to have sexual intercourse with” (about 1300).[2] The verb was replaced by acknowledge.[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined knowledge first as “certain perception”.[8] Knowledgeable first meant “recognizable”, from the verb, and later, from the noun and originally in dialect, “well informed”.[4]

Timeline

  • early 12th century – acknowledgement, honor.[2]
  • c. 1200 – verb, to acknowledge.[2]
  • before 1350 – recognition.[7]
  • late 14th century – familiarity; learning.[2]
  • c. 1400 – sexual intercourse.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Familiarity, awareness or understanding gained through experience or study.
  2. The state or fact of knowing.
  3. The sum of what is known; learning.
  4. Specific information about something.
  5. (archaic) Sexual intercourse, in carnal knowledge.

Word family

  • knowledgeless
  • acknowledge
  • foreknowledge
  • knowledgeable
  • self-knowledge
  • preknowledge
  • superknowledge
  • knowledge engineering
  • know
  • knowing
  • wedlock

Usage notes

Knowledge is the broadest word for what is known, by study or experience;[9] information suggests facts gathered without necessarily being understood, and learning and erudition knowledge gained by long study.[9] In Pembrokeshire a knowledge was a small quantity (“just a knowledge of cheese”).[10]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ 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)