Did you K-now that the silent K in words like K-nee and K-nickK-nack was actually pronounced in Old English. For some reason however, people could not get the K-nack of pronouncing the K as well as the N. So the K sound got K-nocked off.
People got all K-notted up and tongue tied when they tried to say what they K-new about K-nives and K-nitting. The K-now-it-alls of the time tried to keep the K, but even the K-nights were dropping their K’s so it was the death K-nell of the pronounced K.
Many of the K-naves had dropped it well before, as they K-nuckled down to K-neeling for the kings and queens as they just got their tongues in K-nots.
Even scholars who were thirsty for K-nowledge starting dropping their Ks as did the bakers when they K-neaded their bread. All the Ks were taken off door K-nobs at around the same time. However, nobody really K-nows why. Maybe they were tired of K-nocking on the door with their K-nuckles. Who K-nows?
Over time every little K-noll had its K removed. Even today, we have turned up our noses at K-napsacks because we couldn’t get the K-nack of using the word.
So now we K-now that the redundant K disappeared with the K-nights in shining armour. Never to be heard of again.
Derek Haines (AKA The Vandal) is an author and a retired English teacher. He spends most of his time writing, blogging, and fixing technology that goes wrong. You can find his latest writing and publishing articles at Just Publishing Advice.
Hi Derek,
I did not k-now this fact.
I am about to go outside in my k-nickers and k-neel on the grass and plant flowers.
I really should dust my k-nick k-nacks tonight as well.
You really do learn something new everyday!
Thank you for posting this interesting fact and for keeping your wonderful blog alive.
I haven't heard of this before…. this is something I will have to remember to talk to my mother about. She was an English teacher and enjoys facts like this. Love kcsfann's comments!
Aha! there is a point when k-nowing turns to k-new … but you can't row a k-new.
Love this! It'd be fun to publish a series of this sort of thing :)