knotty
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English knotti, knotty (“having a knot in it; full of knots; tied together (?); resembling a knot, knotlike; having knobs or protuberances; bulging, convex; of a tree, branch, etc.: full of knots, gnarled; of a plant cutting to be grafted or planted: full of buds or eyes; having joints (?); having swollen joints; of flesh: glandular; of flesh: granular, lumpy, especially, having many swellings; mangy, scurfy (?); having pimples (?); of cauterization: carried out on glandular tissue; (figuratively) of a question or problem: difficult, intricate”) [and other forms], from knotte (“knot; pattern of intersecting lines; coil of a snake”) (from Old English cnotta (“knot”), from Proto-Germanic *knuttô (“knot”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gned- (“to bind”)) + -i (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). The English word may be analysed as knot + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).
Cognates
* Dutch knoestig (“knotty”)
* German knotig (“knotty”)
* Swedish knotig, knutig (“knotty”)
Base: knot
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: knottier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more knotty
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: knottiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most knotty
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Of string or something stringlike: full of, or tied up, in knots.
pos: adj
examples: I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]
Their heads are long, their haire curld, and ſeeming rather wooll, then haire; tis blacke and knotty: […]
gloss: Of a part of the body, a tree, etc.: full of knots (knobs or swellings); gnarled, knobbly.
pos: adj
examples: a knotty pine
If thou murmur'ſt, I vvwill rend an Oake / And peg thee in his knotty entrailes, till / Thou haſt hovvl'd avvay tvvelve vvinters.
How oft on Sundays, when I'd time to tramp, / My rambles led me to a gipsy's camp, / Where the real effigy of midnight hags, / With tawny smoked flesh and tatter'd rags, / Uncouth-brimm'd hat, and weather-beathen cloak, / 'Neath the wild shelter of a knotty oak, / Along the greensward uniformly pricks / Her pliant bending hazel's arching sticks; […]
gloss: Complicated or tricky; complex, difficult.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: a knotty problem
crop-headed, short-haired
As for the Paſſions and Studies of the Minde, Auoid Enuie; Anxious Feares; Anger fretting invvards; Subtill and knottie Inquiſitions; Ioyes, and Exhilarations in Exceſſe; Sadneſſe not Communicated.
The preſent Argument is the moſt abſtracted that ever I engaged in, it ſtrains my Faculties to their higheſt Stretch; and I deſire the Reader to attend with utmoſt perpenſity; For, I now proceed to unravel this knotty Point.
He ſaid; the reſt in diff'rent parts divide, / The knotty point vvas urg'd on either ſide; / Marriage, the theme on vvhich they all declaim'd, / Some prais'd vvith vvit, and ſome vvith reaſon blam'd.
It’s the knottier questions that elicit his cleaving judgments.
gloss: Of an austere or hard nature; rugged.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: [A] witte in youth, that is not ouer dulle, heauie, knottie and lumpiſhe, but hard, rough, and though ſomwhat ſtaffiſhe, […] ſuch a witte I ſay, if it be, at the firſt well handled by the mother, and rightlie ſmothed and wrought as it ſhould, not ouerwhartlie, and against the wood, by the ſcholemaſter, both for learning, and hole courſe of liuing, proueth alwaies the beſt.
[…] I may erre perhaps in ſoothing my ſelfe that this preſent truth reviv'd, vvill deſerve on all hands to be not ſiniſterly receiv'd, […] but vvith a ſmooth and pleaſing leſſon, vvhich receiv'd hath the vertue to ſoften and diſpell rooted and knotty ſorrovves: […]
Related words: knot
knotting
Derived words: knottily
knottiness
Knotty Ash
unknotty
Translations: