The story
- Old English · inherited frombecnāwan“to know, know about”
- Middle English · inherited frombeknowen
- English todaybeknow
From Middle English beknowen, biknowen, from Old English becnāwan (“to know, know about”), equivalent to be- + know. Cognate with Old High German bichnāan (“to recognise, see”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.