Talk:Cnicht

Latest comment: 6 years ago by 80.176.137.99 in topic Etymology

Etymology

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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)
Makes no sense that Cnicht is from Old English. The mountain is so distinctive it would have been named hundreds of years before the advent of Old English. Welsh language version of Wikipedia has the name as a derivation of the Welsh word 'cnwch'. I'm no word expert but at least cnwch would appear to be logical.

"Yr un ydy tarddiad y gair, mae'n debyg, a'r gair "cnwch" neu cnuch, sef 'chwydd, crwmp' (sef codiad tir yn yr achos yma): mae'n elfen gyffredin mewn enwau lleoedd yng ngogledd Ceredigion ond prin yw'r enghreifftiau y tu allan i'r ardal honno ar wahân i'r gair Cnicht.[1]"

Atributino is The University of Wales Dictionary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.137.99 (talk) 11:59, 1 April 2018 (UTC)Reply