Re: some stewpid questions
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 18:59 |
|---|
Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
> > "think" being *kniht, and _cniht_ is "boy" in Old English isn't it?
> >
>
> It looks more to me like an old orthography of "knight" (though I may be
> influenced by Quenya where "ht" is /xt/ :)) ). Did "knight" ever mean
> "boy" in Old English?
Indeed. The OE pronunciation was /knIxt/; /kn/ > /n/ and /Ix/ -> /i/ -> /aI/.
Semantically, the shift was "young man" > "servant" > "follower, king's
servant" > "knight". The cognate forms in the other German languages
went downmarket: "farm hand, slave".
--
John Cowan <jcowan@...> http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_