knotty

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English

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WOTD – 10 June 2022

Etymology

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From Middle English knotti, knotty (“having a knot in it; full of knots; tied together (?); resembling a knot, knotlike; having knobs or protuberances; bulging, convex; of a tree, branch, etc.: full of knots, gnarled; of a plant cutting to be grafted or planted: full of buds or eyes; having joints (?); having swollen joints; of flesh: glandular; of flesh: granular, lumpy, especially, having many swellings; mangy, scurfy (?); having pimples (?); of cauterization: carried out on glandular tissue; (figuratively) of a question or problem: difficult, intricate”) [and other forms],[1] from knotte (“knot; pattern of intersecting lines; coil of a snake”)[2] (from Old English cnotta (“knot”), from Proto-Germanic *knuttô (“knot”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”)) + -i (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).[3] The English word may be analysed as knot +‎ -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).[4]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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knotty (comparative knottier or more knotty, superlative knottiest or most knotty)

  1. Of string or something stringlike: full of, or tied up, in knots.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 257, column 2:
      I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]
      In the First Quarto (1603) of the work, the corresponding phrase is “Thy knotted and combined locks to part”.
    • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Description of the Sauage Inhabitants [of Ethiopia]”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 14:
      Their heads are long, their haire curld, and ſeeming rather wooll, then haire; tis blacke and knotty: […]
  2. Of a part of the body, a tree, etc.: full of knots (knobs or swellings); gnarled, knobbly.
    a knotty pine
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4, column 2:
      If thou murmur'ſt, I vvwill rend an Oake / And peg thee in his knotty entrailes, till / Thou haſt hovvl'd avvay tvvelve vvinters.
    • 1821, John Clare, “[Poems.] The Gipsy’s Camp.”, in The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, volume I, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […]; and E[dward] Drury, […], →OCLC, page 122:
      How oft on Sundays, when I'd time to tramp, / My rambles led me to a gipsy's camp, / Where the real effigy of midnight hags, / With tawny smoked flesh and tatter'd rags, / Uncouth-brimm'd hat, and weather-beathen cloak, / 'Neath the wild shelter of a knotty oak, / Along the greensward uniformly pricks / Her pliant bending hazel's arching sticks; […]
  3. (figuratively)
    1. Complicated or tricky; complex, difficult.
      Synonyms: intricate, thorny; see also Thesaurus:complex
      Antonyms: simple, uncomplicated
      a knotty problem
      • [c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
        VVhy thou clay braind guts, thou knotty-pated foole, thou horeſon obſcene greaſie tallovv-catch.
        Knotty-pated apparently means “stupid”,[4] but the Oxford English Dictionary also points out that it may be associated with not-pated (“with hair cut short”)[5] which appears earlier in the same scene.]
      • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Regiment of Health. XXX.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 188:
        As for the Paſſions and Studies of the Minde, Auoid Enuie; Anxious Feares; Anger fretting invvards; Subtill and knottie Inquiſitions; Ioyes, and Exhilarations in Exceſſe; Sadneſſe not Communicated.
      • 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section IX. A Digression Concerning the Original, the Use and Improvement of Madness in a Commonwealth.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, pages 169–170:
        The preſent Argument is the moſt abſtracted that ever I engaged in, it ſtrains my Faculties to their higheſt Stretch; and I deſire the Reader to attend with utmoſt perpenſity; For, I now proceed to unravel this knotty Point.
      • 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 208:
        He ſaid; the reſt in diff'rent parts divide, / The knotty point vvas urg'd on either ſide; / Marriage, the theme on vvhich they all declaim'd, / Some prais'd vvith vvit, and ſome vvith reaſon blam'd.
      • 2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker‎[1]:
        It’s the knottier questions that elicit his cleaving judgments.
    2. Of an austere or hard nature; rugged.
      • a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “The First Booke for the Youth [Teachyng the Brynging vp of Youth]”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC, folios 5, verso – 6, recto:
        [A] witte in youth, that is not ouer dulle, heauie, knottie and lumpiſhe, but hard, rough, and though ſomwhat ſtaffiſhe, […] ſuch a witte I ſay, if it be, at the firſt well handled by the mother, and rightlie ſmothed and wrought as it ſhould, not ouerwhartlie, and against the wood, by the ſcholemaſter, both for learning, and hole courſe of liuing, proueth alwaies the beſt.
      • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “The Preface”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book I, page 6:
        […] I may erre perhaps in ſoothing my ſelfe that this preſent truth reviv'd, vvill deſerve on all hands to be not ſiniſterly receiv'd, […] but vvith a ſmooth and pleaſing leſſon, vvhich receiv'd hath the vertue to ſoften and diſpell rooted and knotty ſorrovves: […]

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “knottī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “knotte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “-ī̆, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “knotty, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “knotty, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ N[orman] F[rancis] Blake (2006) “HEAD, words for”, in Shakespeare’s Non-standard English: A Dictionary of His Informal Language (Student Shakespeare Library), London, New York, N.Y.: Continuum, →ISBN, page 166: “with close-cropped hair”; David Crystal, Ben Crystal (2017–) “not-pated, adj.”, in Shakespeare’s Words: “crop-headed, short-haired”.

Further reading

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From knotte +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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knotty

  1. knotted, tied, linked
  2. knotty, tangled, twisted
  3. knobby, bumpy, clumped
  4. knoblike, protruding

Descendants

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  • English: knotty
  • Scots: knottie

References

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