knyght
English
Noun
knyght (plural knyghts)
- Obsolete spelling of knight
Middle English
Alternative forms
- knicht, knict, knicth, knight, knighte, kniȝt, kniȝte, kniht, knygȝt, knyghte, knyȝght, knyȝt, knyȝte, knyht, knyte
- cinht, cnihht, cniht, cnist (early)
Etymology
From Old English cniht, from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /knixt/, /kniːxt/
- (dialectal or Late ME) IPA(key): /kniːt/
- Rhymes: -ixt
Noun
knyght (plural knyghtes or knyghten)
- A knight (armoured noble soldier)
- c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39), folio 34, recto, lines 34-35; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 29 May 2019:
- [Þ]au pilatuſ him come wid ten hu[n]dꝛed cniſteſ. / yet ic wolde louerd foꝛ þi loue fiſte.
- "If Pilate himself came with ten hundred knights, / Lord, I would still fight for your sake."
-
- (by extension) A noble; a potentate.
- (figuratively) A warrior; a fighter.
- (chiefly Early Middle English) A servant or attendant.
- (Early Middle English) A boy or youth.
- (chess) A knight (chess piece)
Related terms
- knyghten
- knyghtly
Descendants
- English: knight
- Scots: knicht
- Yola: nickht
References
- “knī̆ght, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.