Changes

==Origin==

==Origin==

[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ''cniht''‘boy, [[youth]], [[servant]]’; related to Dutch ''knecht'' and German ''Knecht''.  

[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ''cniht''‘boy, [[youth]], [[servant]]’; related to Dutch ''knecht'' and German ''Knecht''.  

This [[meaning]], of unknown origin, is common among [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_languages West Germanic languages] (cf: Old Frisian ''kniucht'', Dutch ''knecht'', Danish ''knægt'', Swedish ''knekt'', Norwegian ''knekt'', Middle High German ''kneht'', all meaning "boy, [[youth]], lad", as well as German Knecht "servant, bondsman, vassal"). Anglo-Saxon ''cniht'' had no particular connection to horsemanship, referring to any [[servant]]. A ''rādcniht'' (meaning "riding-servant") was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback. Old English ''cnihthād'' ("knighthood") had the meaning of [[adolescence]] (i.e. the period between [[childhood]] and manhood) by 1300.

This [[meaning]], of unknown origin, is common among [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_languages West Germanic languages] (cf: Old Frisian ''kniucht'', Dutch ''knecht'', Danish ''knægt'', Swedish ''knekt'', Norwegian ''knekt'', Middle High German ''kneht'', all meaning "boy, [[youth]], lad", as well as German Knecht "servant, bondsman, vassal"). Anglo-Saxon ''cniht'' had no particular connection to horsemanship, referring to any [[servant]]. A ''rādcniht'' (meaning "riding-servant") was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback. Old English ''cnihthād'' ("knighthood") had the meaning of [[adolescence]] (i.e. the period between [[childhood]] and manhood) by 1300.