Why is knight spelled with a "k"?

Question

does not make sense to me

Answer 1

same reason knife is spelled with a 'k'

knee kneel knelt
know knew known
knowledge knot

The silent 'k' in words like 'knight', 'knock' and 'knob' is a remnant of Old English, and wasn't silent at all but was pronounced along with the 'n'. Nobody really k-nows why or when it became silent but this change is believed to have transpired sometime around the 16th to 17th centuries. For some reason the 'kn' consonant cluster became hard for English speakers to pronounce. Perhaps it's the result of foreign influences; after all, England began colonizing the world at a large scale around this time. This phenomena is just one of those mysteries of English language development -- along with the Great Vowel Shift.

Answer 2

In Old English, the K was not silent. The word stayed, but the K became silent over time (probably a French thing)...

Answer 3

Because there already is a Night (oposite of day), and the K in Knight, is silent. Don't worry it makes sence & You will get used to it.

Answer 4

[Origin: bef. 900; ME; OE cniht boy, manservant; c. G, D knecht servant]

Originally 'k' was not silent. It's much the same with knife and other words that now have silent letters. Became obsolete because the words sounded clumsy in English.

Answer 5

Not that this helps, but this is one of the words that migrated from old German into the new language when English began to evolve. It's from the German "knecht" which means the same thing.

Answer 6

To differentiate the person from the noun for the opposite of day! Knight:Night.

Answer 7

Same reason that we have words like know, knife, kneel, knee, etc etc.

Answer 8

...because if it was 'night' you wouldn't see his nice shiny armor.

Answer 9

I don't "k"now.