know

knowen (singulative)
knofen (singulative)
know (unmutated)
gnow (soft)
hnow

From Proto-Brythonic *know, from Proto-Celtic *knūs.


know

Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.

1985 April 17, Frank Herbert, 15:46 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985, UCLACommStudies, archived from the original on 2017-02-10:

‘[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
Did he hell. They never bloody did.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 24:

I know that I’m right and you’re wrong.

He knew something terrible was going to happen.

(transitive) To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.

‘A Gentleman!’ quoth the Squire, ‘who the Devil can he be? Do, Doctor, go down and ſee who ’tis. Mr. Blifil can hardly be come to town yet.—Go down, do, and know what his Buſineſs is.[’]

1749, Henry Fielding, “A whimsical Adventure which befel the Squire, with the distressed Situation of Sophia”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume VI, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVI, page 7:

(intransitive) To be or become aware or cognizant.

She knows where I live.

I knew he was upset, but I didn't understand why.

I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 18:

(transitive) To be aware of; to be cognizant of.

You, and I haue knowne ſir.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], page 350, column 1:

(intransitive, obsolete) To be acquainted (with another person).

I know your mother, but I’ve never met your father.

I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I shall have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I had left New York for the West.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 1:

Marsha is my roommate. — I know Marsha. She is nice.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

(transitive) To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

AFterwarde the man knewe Heuáh his wife, which cõceiued & bare Káin, & ſaid, I haue obteined a man by yͤ Lord.

1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Genesis IIII:1, folio 2, verso:

Now Gerald had never thought of her having a mother. Then there must have been a father, too, some time. And Miss Wilmarth existed because two people once had loved and known. It was not a thought to dwell upon.

1939, Dorothy Parker, “Horsie,”, in Here lies: The collected stories of Dorothy Parker:

Wait a second. Are you… attempting to know me?

2003 May 11, Garland Testa, 19:37 from the start, in Gary McCarver, director, Night and Deity (King of the Hill), season 7, episode 21, spoken by Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick), 20th Century Fox:

know someone in the biblical sense
know someone in the biblical sense

(transitive, archaic, biblical, euphemistic) To have sexual relations with. This meaning normally specified in modern English as e.g. to ’know someone in the biblical sense’ or to ‘know biblically.’

Their relationship knew ups and downs.

The Truman family knew good times and bad,[…].

1991, Irvin Haas, Historic Homes of the American Presidents, page 155:

Let me do it. I know how it works.

She knows how to swim.

His mother tongue is Italian, but he also knows French and English.

She knows chemistry better than anybody else.

Know your enemy and know yourself.

The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.

to know a person's face or figure

to know right from wrong

I wouldn't know one from the other.

Ye ſhall knowe them by their frutes.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew vij:[16], folio ix, recto:

The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, “The Shadow of the Bat”, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 6:

Flares do not know friend from foe and so illuminate both. Changes in wind direction can result in flare exposure of the attacker while defenders hide in the shadows.

1980, Armored and mechanized brigade operations, p.3−29

(transitive) To be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.

At nearer view he thought he knew the dead, / And call'd the wretched man to mind.

c. 1645-1688, Thomas Flatman, Translation of Part of Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon:

Ernest also is so much improved, that you would hardly know him:[…].

1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 115:

(transitive) To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.

It is vital that he not know.

She knew of our plan.

He knows about 19th century politics.

“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 41:

Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.

2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:

Marsha knows.
Audio (US): (file)

(intransitive) To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.

To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.

Do you know "Blueberry Hill"?

(transitive) To be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).

Mmm... Seems you searched for a name that we don't know, we'll send our trained monkeys to check what's in stock.

2023 June 7, “Search Names and Meanings”, in Name Doctor, archived from the original on 2023-06-07:

(transitive) To have indexed and have information about within one's database.

(transitive, philosophy) To maintain (a belief, a position) subject to a given philosophical definition of knowledge; to hold a justified true belief.

en-verb

know (third-person singular simple present knows, present participle knowing, simple past knew or (nonstandard) knowed, past participle known or (colloquial and nonstandard) knew)

knows (present singular third-person)
knowing (participle present)
knew (past)
knowed (nonstandard past)
known (participle past)
knew (colloquial nonstandard participle past)
know (infinitive)
knowe (alternative)

better the devil you know

than the devil you don't (know); than the one you don't (know)

know one's ass from a hole in the ground

know one's head from a hole in the ground

know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground

know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow

know which side one's bread is buttered on

that's for me to know and you to find out

the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don't know

the devil we know is better than the devil we don't

the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know

the devil you know is better than the devil you don't

the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know

the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

you don't know what you're talking about

you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

you never know what you've got till it's gone

адырра

be justifiably certain or sure about (something true)

...に精通している

...にせいつうしている

From Middle English knowen, from Old English cnāwan (“to know, perceive, recognise”), from Proto-West Germanic *knāan, from Proto-Germanic *knēaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).
(Cognates):
from Indo-European: Latin gnoscō, Latin cognoscō (Spanish conocer, French connaître, Italian conoscere, Portuguese conhecer), Ancient Greek γνωρίζω (gnōrízō, “I know”) and γνῶσις (gnôsis, “knowledge”), Albanian njoh (“I know, recognise”), Russian знать (znatʹ, “to know”), Lithuanian žinoti (“to know”), and Persian شناختن (šenâxtan, “to know”).
from Proto-Germanic: Scots knaw (“to know, recognise”), Icelandic knega (“to know, know how to, be able”), Old High German knājan (“to know, recognise”), Old Norse kná (“to know how”). Remotely related also Dutch and German kennen, West Frisian kenne (see English ken).

inh

Old English cnāwan (“to know, perceive, recognise”)

cog

Icelandic knega (“to know, know how to, be able”)

Old High German knājan (“to know, recognise”)

Ancient Greek γνωρίζω (gnōrízō, “I know”)

col

Cognates


know

That on the view and know of theſe Contents, […] He ſhould the bearers put to […] death, […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 259, column 2:

Knowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)

Cognates


know

Owing to increasing numbers and consequent want of room for nestage, the old birds drove away the younger ones, who took refuge in their present abode at Fox's Know, where they have been located about six years.

1868, History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volumes 4-5, page 223:

Alternative form of knowe (“hill, knoll”)


know

Make sure you water the plants, know…

(Singlish) Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information the speaker thinks the listener should keep in mind.

I was a naval diver know!

(Singlish) Used at the end a declarative sentence to emphasize it.


know

Old Breton: cnou

Middle Breton: cnou

Breton: kraou, kraoñ

Cornish: know

Middle Welsh: kneu

Welsh: cnau

From Proto-Celtic *knuwes, plural of *knūs.


know

Doost thou know fidi is a hamaron?

1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY: