An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Knoten

by Friedrich Kluge

Knoten, masculine, ‘knot,’ from Middle High German knote, knode, masculine, ‘natural knot (on the body and plants), artificial knot in a thread, noose’; Old High German chnodo, chnoto, masculine (the Old High German and Middle High German doublets with t and d appear in Knote and Knödel even as late as Modern High German). Allied to Anglo-Saxon cnotta, masculine, English knot, with differently related dentals; compare Old Icelandic ú-knytter, ‘dirty tricks, and Middle High German knotze, feminine, ‘protuberance’; English to knit, Anglo-Saxon cnyttan, Low German (Voss) knütte, feminine, ‘knitting-needles,’ &c. Old Icelandic knútr, masculine, ‘knot,’ knúta, feminine, ‘dice’; they are related to Anglo-Saxon knotta, like Gothic *knaupa- to *knuppa- (compare Knauf and Knopf), and just as a form with a in the stem (Anglo-Saxon cnœpp) is connected with these words, so is Old Icelandic knǫttr (Gothic *knattus), masculine, ‘ball,’ related to the cognates of Knoten. No indubitably allied term can be adduced from the other Aryan languages. Compare also Knüttel.