Talk:knap

RFD discussion: June 2013–April 2014
Sense#3: To bite; to bite off; to break short.

I am not convinced that the citations have the meaning claimed. They seem to me to be just more examples of "break off pieces". In "he will knap the spears apieces with his teeth" the "with his teeth" element would be redundant if knap really meant "bite off". Likewise in "He breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder" the "in sunder" part is redundant if the meaning of knap were "break short". Spinning Spark  13:26, 18 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I thought the same until I looked at the OED. There is an old sense "To bite in a short or abrupt way; to snap; to nibble" (cognate with Dutch and German (originallyLow German) knappen  to crack, snap, bite) which the OED says is "now dialect".  Shakespeare used the verb with this sense in "The Merchant of Venice": "As lying a gossip..as euer knapt Ginger.", and John Clare used it in "The Village Minstrel" (1821, perhaps dialect by then): "Horses..turn'd to knap each other at their ease."  Anne Elizabeth Baker  includes the word in her "Glossary of Northamptonshire words and phrases" in 1854.   D b f  i  r  s   23:50, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Striking as kept; first, there is no consensus to delete; second, this is an RfV matter, not an RfD matter. bd2412 T 13:24, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

English noun
Is it cognate to Low German Knapp (a) and dialectal High German Knapp (b)?
 * (a) e.g. Woeste: "knapp, m. 1. hügel, abhang [...]", i.e. hill, hillside, Kaltschmidt s.v. "Der Knopf": "nieders. [...] Knapp (Hügel) [...]", i.e. hill, Adelung + Soltau & Schönberger s.v. "Der Knopf": "im Paderbornischen Knapp ein Hügel", i.e. hill
 * (b) Schliep: "Westphälisch (niedersächsisch) [could be Ripuarian or Bergish and not Low Saxon in the strict sense]. knapp, Hügel, Berg  Luxemburgisch. knapp.)

-23:39, 2 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Plausible, but such matters are discussed at WT:ES. DCDuring (talk) 03:07, 10 July 2018 (UTC)