A knell is the slow tolling of a bell for a death. The passing knell, a funeral knell, the knell sounded.
The tolling was once a signal to the parish that somebody had died, and the pattern of strokes said whether it was a man, a woman or a child. Death knell is the fixed figurative phrase for the end of something. Note the silent k, which was pronounced in Old English.
1nounknellThe slow tolling of a bell for a death.
“The church bell tolled a slow knell for the old fisherman.”
knell is a bell sound.
KNELL → the BELL that tolls for somebody
For whom the bell tolls. The knell is that slow bell, rung once and then again, for somebody who has died.
hooks ontobell
Old English cnyllan means to strike or knock. The k was pronounced when the word was formed.
Proto-Indo-European
*gen- — to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up
Proto-Germanic
*knuzlijaną — to beat; push; mash
Proto-West Germanic
*knuʀlijan
Old English
cnyllan — to strike; knock; clap
Middle English
knyllen
English, today
knell
From Middle English knyllen, from Old English cnyllan (“to strike; knock; clap”), from Proto-West Germanic knuʀlijan, from Proto-Germanic knuzlijaną (“to beat; push; mash”), from Proto-Indo-European gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA