carlbaron wrote:
> Brad Sondahl wrote:
>
>> So I wondered about the origins of knick Knack,
More than you'll probably ever want to know. Hope I got all the text
scan errors corrected.
Carl
knick-knack.
This reduplicated word (cp. scurry) is from knack. The word
imitates its meaning, the sound of a sharp short blow, a map. Then it
meant a trick a device, a toy then, the adroitness in performing the
trick. (Thus we say "That's a map 1") Knack is a member of a fertile
family. Many of the words in it are now obsolete but the kn--, gn--,
n--, initial sounds are found in words common in the Teuton tongues, and
linked with Latin and Greek back to far off Aryan sources, meaning
biting, breaking, or swelling (a protuberance, a knuckle to knock with,
a head). Interlocked are the ideas of to eat and to know: ME. gnawcn, to
gnaw; AS. cnawan, to know; L. gnoscere, to know,whence Eng. cognition;
ignorant; Gr. gignoskein, to know; Sansk. jna, to know. The idea of
absorbing is common to both food and knowledge. Thus L. rumen, the first
stomach of a cud-chewing animal, gives us both ruminant chewing cud, and
ruminate, to think over Shakespeare says "Chew upon this" ( Julius
Caesar, I,ii,171 ) meaning ponder. To digest, q.v., has the sarne double
use and since digestion absorbs only the good, a digest gives us (to
continue the food figure) the meat of an item, leaving the shell. Cp.
strike.
Some idea of this complex family of words may be gathered from the
listing that follows. Knab is an old spelling of nab, knabble, an early
form of nibble. Knag is a protuberant knot in wood. Knap (AS. cnaep), a
mound; also, (Du. knappen), to break short· to bite off; whence
knapsack, q.v. Knar is a knot (of wood) whence knarled, now more
commonly gnarled--though gnarl is a diminutive of gnar, earlier knarre,
knar. The gn--and the sn-- words are akin: early knaw became gnaw (Gr.
gnathos, jaw): gnash; Dan. knaske, to grind the teeth; snap, snip,
snarl, snatch, snob, sunb), Perhaps it is the influence of the kn--
sound that changed knave, which first meant just boy, to the sense of
rascal, as in knavery. Knight was spared the same fate by becoming a
term in history; the G. form, Knecht, has come to mean menial. Knicker,
a boy's marble, is from D. knikken, to knock--which itself (AS. cnucian)
is an imitative word, like most of these. See knickers. For knit, knot,
and knout, see knot. Knob is a later form of knop still earlier knoppe,
a bud, its form knosp (Gr. knospe, bud) is used as a term in
architecture. Knoll (AS. cnoll) via Welsh cnol is a diminutive of Gael.
cnoc, mound. Knub is a variant of knob, a bump as a verb this meant to
strike with the knuckles; and knuckle is a later forrn of knockel, with
which we knock. Knur, also nur, is a knot or lump) in wood and knurl is
wood knotted in the grain; to nurl is to give a fluted edge, as to a
coin. Knickknack itself is also spelled nick nack.
The forms without the initial k are as common. Nab is of two
sources: Ice. nabbi, a knob; and Dan. nappe, to catch. The second of
these gives us kidnap; cp.. kid. From ME. nap, a protuberance, comes the
nape of the neck. (There are also nap, from AS. hnappian, to slumber;
nap, from AS.hnoppa, the. nap of cloth; and nap, a card game, short for
Napoleon.) AS. neb, beak cognate with snap, gives us the nib of a pen.
Nib also meant to take a small bite; its frequentative is nibble.
(Snap, and snip, as related to nip, earlier knip, to pinch, to bite,
remihd us that s--is often prefixed as an intensive: splash from plash;
smash from mash; squash from quash, scrunch from crunch; scratch is
paralleled by G. kratsen and Fr. gratter; whence Eng. grate. Mrs. Gamp,
in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit, says scroud for crowd.) Knip, later nip
pinch, has the frequentative nipple. Also nob, to strike and nob, the
head; nobble, to stun--though slang nob, whence nobby, is short for
nobleman; and nod (OHG. hnoton, to shake) also slang noddle, the head,
corrupted to noodle.
Nick (Du. knik, a nod) as in the nick of time also (G. knicken
ODu. nocke) a slight cut, a notch, also a nock. Nock was first the horn
end of a long bow then the notch for the arrow (L. nux, nuc--, nut, was
used with the same meaning). Nick is also an abbreviation of the devil,
the Old Nick contrariwise St. Nick (Nikolaus) is Santa Claus, patron of
travelers. See nickel. Niche, the (originally shell-shaped) recess in a
wall, is from It. nicchia, perhaps from LL. nidiculare to nestle, from
nidicare, to nest, from nidus, nest--but most probably from It. nicchio,
shell, shellfish, from L. mytilus mussel. Notch was earlier otch,
perhaps by joining of the article, an + otch, whence a notch. Cp.
auction. It is probably softened from nock; but also suggested is Fr.
osche, from oschier, to cut, from L. absecare, to cut away from L. ab,
away, + secare, the present participle of which gives us secant. What we
gnaw, we cannot ignore; we are what we eat. Which indeed is food for
thought.
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