knyght

English

Noun

knyght (plural knyghts)

Obsolete spelling of knight.

Middle English

Alternative forms

knicht, knict, knicth, knight, knighte, kniȝt, kniȝte, kniht, knygȝt, knyghte, knyȝght, knyȝt, knyȝte, knyht, knyte
cinht, cnihht, cniht, cnist (Early Middle English)

Etymology

From Old English cniht, from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /knixt/, /kniːxt/
(dialectal or late) IPA^(key): /kniːt/
Rhymes: -ixt

Noun

knyght (plural knyghtes or knyghten)

A knight (armoured noble soldier)
- c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39), folio 34, recto, lines 34-35; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 29 May 2019:
  [Þ]au pilatuſ him come wid ten hu[n]dꝛed cniſteſ. / yet ic wolde louerd foꝛ þi loue fiſte.
  "If Pilate himself came with ten hundred knights, / Lord, I would still fight for your sake."
- a. 1333, “Poem 16: Quis est iste qui uenit de Edom?; Fol. 210r”, in William Herebert, transl., Opera (British Library MS. Add. 46919)‎^[1], Hereford; republished as The Works of William Herebert, OFM (Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse), [Ann Arbor]: University of Michigan, a. 2018:
  What ys he, þys lordling, þat cometh vrom þe vyht, / Wyth blodrede wede so grysliche ydyht, / So vayre ycoyntised, so semlich in syht, / So styflyche ȝóngeþ, so douhti a knyht?
  Who is he, this noble who comes from the battle / with blood-red clothes so grimly coloured, / so finely adorned, so seemly in sight; / walking so boldly, so doughty a knight?
(by extension) A noble; a potentate.
(figuratively) A warrior; a fighter.
- c. 1390, “Edward þe þridde”, in Sowlehele (Vernon Lyrics, Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. a. 1)‎^[2], Worcestershire, folio 411, recto; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 10 January 2019:
  ¶ Þe Roþ᷑. was nouþer. Ok. ne Elm⹎ / Hit was Edward þe þridde. þe noble kniht.
  The rudder was neither oak or elm: / It was Edward the Third, the noble warrior!
(chiefly Early Middle English) A servant or attendant.
(Early Middle English) A boy or youth.
(chess) A knight (chess piece)

Declension

Declension of *knyght*
	singular	plural
(nominative/accusative)	knyght	knyghtes, knyghten
genitive	knyghtes	knyghte, knyghtene
dative	knyghte¹	knyghten²

¹Optional; mostly fossilised after Early Middle English.
²Only found in Early Middle English and optional there.

Related terms

Descendants

English: knight
Scots: knicht
Yola: nickht

References

“knī̆ght, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.