There’s not a “silent k” in “knight” any more than there’s a “silent t” in “this.” What there is is a “kn” digraph, like there’s a “th” digraph in “this.” The kn digraph is etymologically driven — driven by the history of the words and the history of English, but there’s still more.
Words that start with the kn digraph fall into two camps. There’s the word “know” and its family (knowing, knows, knew, knowledge, etc.). I’ll get to that later.
The rest of the words that start with a kn have to do historically with something that is sticking out or something that is stick-shaped. Knee, knuckle, knoll, knob, knot — all of these are protuberances. Knitting involves making little knots. Knickers are work at the knees. A knife is stick shaped. Etc. The words “knight” and “knave” historically referred just to young boys, who were considered to be stick-shaped, as opposed to broad-shouldered, grown men.
I am not making this up.
The word “know” and its family bear a different kind of relationship to other words that explain its spelling. The “kn” in “know” is related historically to the word “can” — the /k/ and /n/ pronunciation in that word is related to the historical /kn/ pronunciation in the Old English verb cnawan, the root of “know.” The “kn” in “know” also marks a relationship to the “gn” in words like diagnose, Gnostic, agnostic, cognition, recognize, ignorant, and many more — this broad word family all has to do with knowing or not knowing.
English may be described as “lazy German” in so many instances…….
Mo Newman:
January 30th, 2018 at 4:06 am
And in French we have “canif” for a penknife!
Vernon Doria:
September 25th, 2019 at 10:22 am
Seems that if we can drop the pronunciation of the K in Knife, knot, knit, etc. when we are saying the word, we could also drop it in the spelling and make it easier to spell, as we have made it easier to say, i.e., nife, not, nit. Before you say we get into the confusion of not or no (instead) of know, etc., don’t forget that there are plenty of words in the English language that work that way and context is important like read and read (red). Just saying.
Benjamin:
April 27th, 2020 at 1:03 am
Yay! For Fractured Fairy Tales and Bullwinkle and Rocky the Flying Squirrel!?
admin:
April 27th, 2020 at 3:31 am
Yep. Actually, there are at least four other columns (and a few comments) on this site that mention Rocky & his friends. You can find them by searching for “Bullwinkle” in the search box on the upper left of the page. In one of those columns, there’s even a sound link to Bullwinkle uttering one of *his* most-cited comments: http://www.evanmorris.com/fanmailflounder.wav
—KW
Michaela:
April 27th, 2021 at 9:06 am
Thanks very much for that useful information, Lex, much appreciated
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Katie Baker:
January 18th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
I think “congradulations” might be intentional–a kind of pun or portmanteau word (Humpty Dumpty or was it the Caterpillar?)
Charlize Dawson:
September 9th, 2014 at 10:35 pm
What’s this is carried on your back when you go walking, what’s the kn word for that please tell me kn word for that??
Ricka:
September 20th, 2014 at 12:59 pm
Knapsack. But this word is not used much anymore. Instead we use backpack.
Ellen:
January 28th, 2015 at 4:01 pm
Thanks for this explanation! My 7 yr old asked me today why the words “knee” and “know” had a “k” that we didn’t pronounce. Now I have the answer!
LEX:
June 9th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
There’s a lot more to this story.
There’s not a “silent k” in “knight” any more than there’s a “silent t” in “this.” What there is is a “kn” digraph, like there’s a “th” digraph in “this.” The kn digraph is etymologically driven — driven by the history of the words and the history of English, but there’s still more.
Words that start with the kn digraph fall into two camps. There’s the word “know” and its family (knowing, knows, knew, knowledge, etc.). I’ll get to that later.
The rest of the words that start with a kn have to do historically with something that is sticking out or something that is stick-shaped. Knee, knuckle, knoll, knob, knot — all of these are protuberances. Knitting involves making little knots. Knickers are work at the knees. A knife is stick shaped. Etc. The words “knight” and “knave” historically referred just to young boys, who were considered to be stick-shaped, as opposed to broad-shouldered, grown men.
I am not making this up.
The word “know” and its family bear a different kind of relationship to other words that explain its spelling. The “kn” in “know” is related historically to the word “can” — the /k/ and /n/ pronunciation in that word is related to the historical /kn/ pronunciation in the Old English verb cnawan, the root of “know.” The “kn” in “know” also marks a relationship to the “gn” in words like diagnose, Gnostic, agnostic, cognition, recognize, ignorant, and many more — this broad word family all has to do with knowing or not knowing.
Folks who would like to know more about this should check out my website: http://www.linguisteducatorexchange.com
Alex:
November 26th, 2016 at 7:08 pm
hmmm seems the site does not take greek letters ??????/???????/???? refers to gnosi/gignosko/gnomi ….
Bram:
July 8th, 2017 at 1:40 pm
English may be described as “lazy German” in so many instances…….
Mo Newman:
January 30th, 2018 at 4:06 am
And in French we have “canif” for a penknife!
Vernon Doria:
September 25th, 2019 at 10:22 am
Seems that if we can drop the pronunciation of the K in Knife, knot, knit, etc. when we are saying the word, we could also drop it in the spelling and make it easier to spell, as we have made it easier to say, i.e., nife, not, nit. Before you say we get into the confusion of not or no (instead) of know, etc., don’t forget that there are plenty of words in the English language that work that way and context is important like read and read (red). Just saying.
Benjamin:
April 27th, 2020 at 1:03 am
Yay! For Fractured Fairy Tales and Bullwinkle and Rocky the Flying Squirrel!?
admin:
April 27th, 2020 at 3:31 am
Yep. Actually, there are at least four other columns (and a few comments) on this site that mention Rocky & his friends. You can find them by searching for “Bullwinkle” in the search box on the upper left of the page. In one of those columns, there’s even a sound link to Bullwinkle uttering one of *his* most-cited comments:
http://www.evanmorris.com/fanmailflounder.wav
—KW
Michaela:
April 27th, 2021 at 9:06 am
Thanks very much for that useful information, Lex, much appreciated