Editing Knight (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''knight'', from [[Old English]] ''cniht'' ("boy" or "servant"),<ref name="Etymo">{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/knight |title=Knight |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=2009-04-07}}</ref> is a [[cognate]] of the [[German language|German]] word ''Knecht'' ("servant, bondsman, vassal").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&p=KO6ek.&search=Knecht |title=Knecht |work=LEO German-English dictionary |access-date=2009-04-07}}</ref> This meaning, of unknown origin, is common among [[West Germanic languages]] (cf [[Old Frisian]] ''kniucht'', Dutch ''knecht'', Danish ''knægt'', Swedish ''knekt'', Norwegian ''knekt'', [[Middle High German]] ''kneht'', all meaning "boy, youth, lad").<ref name="Etymo" /> [[Middle High German]] had the phrase ''guoter kneht'', which also meant knight; but this meaning was in decline by about 1200.<ref>William Henry Jackson. "Aspects of Knighthood in Hartmann's Adaptations of Chretien's Romances and in the Social Context." In ''Chretien de Troyes and the German Middle Ages: Papers from an International Symposium'', ed. Martin H. Jones and Roy Wisbey. Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1993. 37–55.</ref>

The meaning of ''cniht'' changed over time from its original meaning of "boy" to "household [[Affinity (medieval)|retainer]]". [[Ælfric of Eynsham|Ælfric]]'s homily of St. [[Swithun]] describes a mounted retainer as a ''cniht''. While ''cnihtas'' might have fought alongside their lords, their role as household servants features more prominently in the Anglo-Saxon texts. In several Anglo-Saxon wills ''cnihtas'' are left either money or lands. In his will, King [[Æthelstan]] leaves his cniht, Aelfmar, eight [[Hide (unit)|hides]] of land.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Combined Books| last = Coss| first = Peter R| title = The knight in medieval England, 1000-1400| location = Conshohocken, PA| access-date = 2017-06-18| date = 1996| isbn = 9780938289777| url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/34564952.html}}</ref>

A ''rādcniht'', "riding-servant", was a servant on horseback.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark Hall |first1=John R. |title=A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary |date=1916 |publisher=Macmillan Company |page=238 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31543/31543-h/files/dict_os.html |access-date=18 January 2019}}</ref>

A narrowing of the generic meaning "servant" to "military follower of a king or other superior" is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a mounted warrior in the [[heavy cavalry]] emerges only in the [[Hundred Years' War]]. The verb "to knight" (to make someone a knight) appears around 1300; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight".

An [[Equites|Equestrian]] ([[Latin]], from ''eques'' "horseman", from ''equus'' "[[horse]]")<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Equestrian |encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000}}</ref> was a member of the second highest [[social class]] in the [[Roman Republic]] and early [[Roman Empire]]. This class is often translated as "knight"; the medieval knight, however, was called ''miles'' in Latin (which in classical Latin meant "soldier", normally infantry).<ref>D'A. J. D. Boulton, "Classic Knighthood as Nobiliary Dignity", in Stephen Church, Ruth Harvey (ed.), ''Medieval knighthood V: papers from the sixth Strawberry Hill Conference 1994'', Boydell & Brewer, 1995, pp. 41–100.</ref><ref>Frank Anthony Carl Mantello, A. G. Rigg, ''Medieval Latin: an introduction and bibliographical guide'', UA Press, 1996, p. 448.</ref><ref>Charlton Thomas Lewis, ''An elementary Latin dictionary'', Harper & Brothers, 1899, p. 505.</ref>

In the later Roman Empire, the [[classical Latin]] word for horse, ''equus'', was replaced in common parlance by the [[vulgar Latin]] ''caballus'', sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish ''caballos''.<ref>Xavier Delamarre, entry on ''caballos'' in ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 96. The entry on ''cabullus'' in the ''[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]]'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 246, does not give a probable origin, and merely compares [[Old Bulgarian]] ''kobyla'' and [[Old Russian]] ''komoń<sub>b</sub>''.</ref> From ''caballus'' arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the (French-derived) English ''cavalier'': Italian ''cavaliere'', Spanish ''caballero'', French ''chevalier'' (whence ''chivalry''), Portuguese ''cavaleiro'', and Romanian ''cavaler''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Cavalier |encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000}}</ref>  The Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English ''rider'': German ''Ritter'', and Dutch and Scandinavian ''ridder''. These words are derived from Germanic ''rīdan'', "to ride", in turn derived from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root ''*reidh-''.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Reidh- [Appendix I: Indo-European Roots] |encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000}}</ref>