Talk:Cnicht

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[edit] Etymology

Where did the idea that Cnicht is a Welsh word come from? Is it from some published source, or is it just supposition? It might have come through Welsh, but it is originally Old English, without any doubt. Unless the meaning of the word changed when borrowed into Welsh, I think it would be better to credit it to Old English. --Stemonitis 09:37, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think the point is not where the word came from, after all did Old English 'borrow' it from Saxon, Latin etc? The point is that cnicht means knight in Welsh, and Cnicht the hill is called Cnicht because it supposedly looks like a knight.Grinner 09:52, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

Um, no, the Welsh for knight is marchog. The word cnicht appears, to my knowledge, only in the mountain name. Old English did not borrow the word from anywhere; it inherited it (along with almost everything else) from its West Germanic ancestor, probably back to Proto-Germanic (whence also German Knecht, Dutch knecht, etc.), and indeed it's still found in English, only now the pronunciation has changed to knight. --Stemonitis 10:57, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Oh, I think I misunderstood. Sorry. In that case yes, we should probably go with Old English. Grinner 13:54, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)