knitch
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English knicche (“bundle (of brush, weeds), bunch, sheaf”), from Old English ġecnyċċ (“bond”), deverbative of ġecnyċċan, cnyċċan (“to tie, bind together, connect”), from Proto-Germanic *knukkijaną; akin to Lithuanian gniáužti (“to close one’s hand”).[1]
Pronunciation
- enPR: nĭch, IPA(key): /nɪt͡ʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɪtʃ
- Homophone: nitch
Noun
knitch (plural knitches)
- (archaic, dialectal) A small bundle.
- a knitch of wheat
- 1606, Caius [i.e., Gaius] Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Historie of Caius Iulius Cesar Dictator”, in Philêmon Holland, transl., The Historie of Twelve Cæsars Emperours of Rome. […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes and George Snowdon] for Matthew Lownes, →OCLC, section 20, page 8:
- Hee brought-in likevvise the ancient cuſtome againe, that in vvhat moneth hee had not the Knitches of rods vvith Axes borne before him, a publique Officer called Accensvs ſhould huiſher him before, and the Serjeants or Lictours follovv after behinde.
References
- ^ Guus Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 298.