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.
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 :)