Hits a door or surface with your knuckles to get someone's attention, or criticism or bad luck that happens to someone.
From Old English 'cnucian' with Germanic roots, an imitative word where the sound reflects the meaning. The 'kn' combination was originally pronounced in Old English but the 'k' became silent.
The silent 'k' in 'knock' is a remnant of Old English pronunciation—you can still find this in words like 'knight', 'knit', and 'knee', making them linguistic fossils that help us understand how English sounded 1,000 years ago.
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