On May 5, 8:53 am, carlbaron <c.b.baronS...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 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=B7 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.
Funny about short degrees of separation. My father-in-law, Harold
Shulman (1893-1980) was a classmate of Joseph ****pley at CCNY, class
of 1912. ****pley, known to his classmates as "Bud," died 1988 at age
94. He was a drama critic in New York for 60 years, and, according to
his obit, wrote 27 books, including this one. Unfortunately, I never
met him, but I've read the many letters he sent to my father-in-law,
in a personal style that's very different from the one he uses in his
books on the English language.
Did I mention before that I'm only 5 degrees of separation away from
Hilary Clinton? In their last years, my mother- and father-in-law
lived in Columbia, Maryland, and, when visiting, we became acquainted
with their neighbor, Patrick Hagen. Hagen ran (or runs?) a couple of
hair salons in Baltimore & Columbia, and one of his clients was Linda
Tripp (until he kicked her out for abusing the help). In turn, Linda
knew Monica Lewinsky ...
Lyle
|
