Etymology

knot

K5N1O1T1

Today it means: A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops. Full definition →

Middle English knotte ← Old English cnotta ← Proto-West Germanic *knottō
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knot · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gnod-“to bind”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*knuttô
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*knottō
  4. Old English · inherited fromcnotta
  5. Middle English · inherited fromknotte
  6. English todayknot

From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”). See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus. * (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.

knot · noun2

Supposed to be derived from the name of King Canute, with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the specific epithet canutus.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishcnotta all →

knottyKnutton

Proto-Germanic*knuttô all →

knotty

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.