Other forms: knights
In chess, the knight is the piece that moves in an L shape and is the only one that may jump over others. Two knights each, the knight forks the king and queen.
That jumping is what makes it awkward for beginners and valuable in a crowded position. The piece is shaped like a horse's head and is abbreviated N in notation, because K is taken by the king. Outside chess, a knight was a medieval mounted soldier, and in Britain a knighthood is still awarded — a knight is addressed as Sir. Note the silent k and gh, which make knight one of the least phonetic words in English.
1nounpieceThe chess piece that moves in an L shape and can jump.
“The knight is worth about three pawns.”
2nounmedievalA medieval soldier who fought on horseback.
“The knight is buried under the chancel.”
3nounmanA man given the British honour that lets him be called Sir.
“He was made a knight in the new year list.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
knight is a chess piece, or a rank.
Old English cniht meant a boy or a servant — the same word as German Knecht, which still means a farmhand. The word climbed from servant to mounted warrior to honoured title, which is about as far as an English word has ever travelled up the social scale.
Proto-West Germanic
*kneht
Old English
cniht — boy; servant, knight
Middle English
knight
English, today
knight
From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic kneht.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA