K N I 
fpeflably fupported ; but his death, conne&ed with thefe 
circumftauces, muft deftroy every doubt. 
KNIF'VEN, a finall ifland on the weft fide of the gulf 
of Bothnia. Lat. 60.38. N. Ion. 17. 30. E. 
KNIGHT, J. [In Gr. wiro-ves ; Lat. eques ; Sax. cnihv ; 
Fr. chevalier and cavalier ; Jtal. cavaghere ; Span, cabal- 
liere ; Germ, kidder. The etymology of this word has 
puzzled the molt profound and learned antiquaries. Sel- 
den, Spelman, and Alhmole, after feveral others, have 
long and varioudy laboured to find its true origin ; and 
all have brought blit unfatisfaftory refults to their read¬ 
ers ; fome of them will have it derived from the Saxon 
cniht, or German knecht-, and quote many paflages of old 
romancers who have adopted it in that fenfe ; but, as in 
both tlie Saxon and German tongues it means an atten¬ 
dant, a fervant, in a low fituation of life, (for Minlhew 
fays, “ the equites, which heretofore followed and accom¬ 
panied the emperor, are, in the German tongue, called 
knecktcs, that is, fervitors or minifters;”) we cannot reft 
fatisfied with their hypothefis, liowfoever ingenious it 
may appear, fince, in the earlieft eras of chivalry, the word 
has been ufed as a title of honour. Its true origin, if we 
clioofe to go back to a much more ancient foiirce, appears 
to have arifen from the Greek, or fome more ancient lan¬ 
guage from which the Greek itfelf and all other lan¬ 
guages were derived ; and we hope to be able, in the fol¬ 
lowing paragraphs, to bring the cafe to demonftration. 
In the beginning of the Iliad, the venerable and much- 
injured father Chryfes, the prieft of Apollo, arrives, a feep- 
tered and crowned fuppliant, at the Sygean ftiores, to claim 
back his daughter, then a (lave to Agamemnon. Intend¬ 
ing to prepollefs the chieftains in his favour, the old man 
addrefl'es them by the appellation of ivy.re^a; oe-gx 101, an 
honourable epithet often ufed by Homer in both his im¬ 
mortal poems. Now the word evy-vnpiht; cannot be applied 
but to horfemen, as it means bene-ccreati, “ well-booted 5” 
the ufe of boots or greaves being at that time, and in¬ 
deed to a very late period, exclufively confined to men 
who were in the habit of riding. From xtitjpj, the leg, 
from which is alfo derived the Englifh word knee, (or 
vice verfa, from knee, a more ancient word perhaps, from 
which the Greeks derived their y.vypv,') arofe zw/xn, a boot, 
part of the ufual accoutrement of a horfeman. Therefore 
it is not improper to conclude that the word knight is de¬ 
rived from the boot which covered the knee and leg 
xrr,f/. 7 i ; and that its proper meaning is, “ a man wearing 
boots for the ufe of the horfe.” The addrefs of Chryfes 
might confequently be literally tranflated in Englilh, 
“ Knights of Greece.” 
But the Greeks had another expreftion for the fame 
meaning, of which our word knight feems to be ftill a 
nearer reprefentative, not as to etymology, but as to fig- 
nification. lirnov/tc, and in the Doric dialeft mrrorx, 
(which the Meonian bard introduced when the quantity 
of his line required it,) was ufed alfo as a title of great 
honour for thofe warriors who had long experienced the 
fatigues of the field, and were generally feen on horfeback 
at the head of their refpeCtive phalanx. The veteran 
Neftor is often and nearly always diltinguiflied by this 
epithet. In the fecond book of the Iliad we read: Toitn 
< 5 e y.xi /wsteeshe imro-ra Nsf^e : the fame is repeated 
with the word ytfcvioi;, H. 170. ©. nz & 151. I. 163. K. 
128 Sc 157. See. We have alfo in I. 53. /zn-itponuv imrora. 
Ncfiyp. And, to prove that it was not exclulively applied 
to the king of Pylos, we can quote feveral inftances out 
of the fame poem. In the catalogue of fhips, at the end 
of the fecond book, Horner bellows the fame epithet upon 
Phyleus : OcAstJ*??, ov tixtb An (pAo; irerrorci (pv'Xeve. This 
title of knight, or horfeman, was alfo given in another way 
to other chieftains : irsrooiq/.o; is applied to Diomedes 
and feveral others, and means more efpecially a man 
fkiiful in taming and leading a horfe. We have not, 
however, any particular data to guefs whether this title 
was bellowed upon them by their generals or fuperiors, 
or merely acquired by their long and diltinguiflied ex- 
Vo L. XI. No. 795. 
K N I 785 
ploits; but it feems obvious that it was owing to one 
of thefe caufes. 
It is clear, befides, that the word ufed to denote the 
degree of knighthood, in the refpeftive dialefls of other 
nations, is alfo derived from that ufeful animal who fliares 
with the brave the fatigues and dangers of war, the 
horfe; and one of Chaucer’s fcholars, Lydgate, fays, in 
his quaint ftyle: 
Eques ab equo is faid of very ryght, 
And chevalier is faid of chevalrie; 
In which a rider called is a knight; 
Aragoners do alfo fpecifie 
Caballfero, through all that partie. 
Is name of worlliip, and lo tooke his ’ginning. 
Of lpurs of gold, and chiefly riding. 
We trull that this elucidation upon the etymon of a 
word fo often ufed amongft us will be acceptable to the 
reader; for, although Mr. Burke faid with melancholy 
truth, that “ chivalry is no more,” the true fpirit of it ftill 
furvives, and animates thofe of our countrymen who by 
their “ valour and virtue” have deferved to be honoured 
with the infignia of knighthood.] 
A man advanced to a certain degree of military rank. 
It was anciently the cuftom to knight every man of rank 
or fortune, that he might be qualified to give challenges, 
to fight in the lifts, and to perform feats of arms. In 
England knighthood confers the title of fr ; as , fir Tho¬ 
mas, fir Richard. When the name was not known, it 
was ufual to fay Sir Knight. 
This knight-, but yet why fhould I call him knight, 
To give impiety to this rev’rent ftyle? Daniel. 
Sir Knight, if knight thou be. 
Abandon this foreftalled place. Spenfcr. 
Shakefpeare ufes it of a female, and it muft therefore be 
underllood in its Saxon meaning, pupil or follower : 
Pardon, goddefs of the night, 
Thofe that flew thy virgin knight ; 
For the which, with fongs of woe. 
Round about her tomb they go. Shakefpeare. 
A champion : 
He fuddenly unties the poke. 
Which out of it fent fuch a fmoke, 
As ready was them all to choke, 
So grievous was the pother; 
So that the knights each other loft. 
And flood as ftill as any poll. Drayton. 
Knight, in a fhip, a block compofed of two fliort 
thick pieces of wood, commonly carved like a man’s head, 
having four fliivers in each, three for the haulyards, and 
one for the top to run in ; one of them Hands fail bolted 
on the beams abaft the foremaft, and is therefore called 
the fore-knight-, and the other, Handing abaft the mainmaft, 
is called the main-knight. 
To KNIGHT, v. a. To create one a knight, which is 
done by the king, who gives the perfon kneeling a blow 
with, a lword, and bids him rife up fir. —The lord protec¬ 
tor knighted the king ; and immediately the king flood up, 
took the fword from the lord protestor, and dubbed the 
lord mayor of London knight. Hayward. 
The hero William, and the martyr Charles 
One knighted Blackmore, and one penfion’d Quarles. Pope 
KNIGHT’s CANAL, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, on 
the weft coaft of North-America, extending in an eall and 
north-eaft direction about fifty miles. Its entrance from 
an arm of the fea lies in lat. 50.45. N. Ion. 233.16. E. 
KNIGHT’s CROSS, in botany. See Lychnis. 
KNIGHT-ER'RANTjy. A wandering knight; one 
who went about in quelt of adventures : 
Like a bold knight-errant did proclaim 
Combat to all, and bore away the dame. Denham. 
9 O The 
