Knights

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /naɪts/

Definitions

1. A medieval warrior usually on horseback who served a lord ; a person admitted to a chivalrous order as a mark of honor or rank
2. A horse-mounted soldier of noble birth in the Middle Ages ; an individual granted membership in a formal group respecting chivalry and service
3. A warrior in armor during medieval times often granted land for service ; a honoree knighted into a society recognizing valor and noble conduct

Etymology: "Knights" is the plural of "knight," and "knight" began as an Old English word for a boy or young servant, not a warrior. The Old English "cniht" meant a youth or attendant, and it is related to the German "Knecht," still meaning a servant or farmhand. Its sense narrowed over the Middle Ages: as mounted warriors came to form a distinct social class, "cniht" and its later forms came to mean a man who had earned or been granted the rank of a mounted fighting man, and the old meaning of a servant faded away. The word therefore records a shift in social status rather than a change in fighting. A servant or youth in an Anglo-Saxon household was not a knight, but the idea of a dependent attached to a lord gradually turned into the idea of a military follower bound by oath, and eventually into the chivalric figure of the armored horseman. The plural simply carries that noun's history with it.

Synonyms: cavalry, warriors, paladins, crusaders, defenders