Forms: 1 cnihthád; 3– kniht-, etc. (see KNIGHT), 3–6 -hod, -hode, 5–6 -hoode, 6 -hood. [OE. cnihthád, f. cniht boy, lad + -hád -HOOD. In ME. following the current sense of KNIGHT.]
I. (OE. cnihthád.) † 1. Boyhood, youth. Obs.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxviii. § 5. Þa hwile þe hit on cnihthade bið, & swa forð eallne ʓioʓoðhad.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. (Z.), 56. Pubis, cniht oððe cnihthad.
II. (ME. and mod.Eng.)
2. The rank or dignity of a knight.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 440. Þat he me ȝive dubbing Þanne is mi þralhod Iwent in to kniȝthod.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 222. Kinghod and kniȝthod … Helpiþ nouȝt to heuene.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 31. Preamble, Divers of the Kinges Subgiettes … ar commaunded … to take uppon them the honour & degree of Knyghthode.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iii. 132. I would not take a Knighthood for my Fortune.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 277. A gentleman … who had long been earnestly ambitious of the honour of Knighthood.
1733. Pope, Hor. Sat., II. i. 22. You’ll gain at least a Knighthood, or the Bays.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb., 9/1. It is expected that several knighthoods will be conferred.
b. transf. Applied to one having this rank; a knight.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 76. [The Garter] Buckled below faire Knight-hoods bending knee.
c. With poss. pron. as a mode of address.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxii. I only desired to know if your knighthood proposed the chivalrous task.
d. The ceremony of knighting a person.
1711. Madox, Exch., i. 2. There Coronations, Marriages and Knighthoods of the King’s Children … were celebrated.
3. The profession or vocation of a knight.
c. 1325. Song Mercy, 155, in E. E. P. (1862), 123. Corteis knihthod and clergye … Are now so roted in rybaudye.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. vi. 31. Yf the studye [of science] wente out of ffraunce, knyghthode wold goo after.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 75. By that, and all the rites of Knight-hood else, Will I make good against thee … What I haue spoken.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 10. The champions … Who knighthood loved, and deeds of chivalry.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 145. The old virtues of knighthood—its truth and honour, its chastity and courage.
† b. (trans. L. mīlitia.) Military service; soldiery; warfare. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. x. 4. The armers of oure knyȝthod ben not fleischly. Ibid., 2 Tim. ii. 4. No man holdinge knyȝthod to God [Vulg. militans Deo], inwlappith him silf with worldli nedis.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. l. 122. Þis frayl lif, þat is all temptacion and kniȝthode.
1535. Coverdale, Judith vi. 4. Then shal the swerde of my knyghthode [militiæ meæ] go thorow thy sydes.
1552. Huloet, Knighthode, mililia.
4. The character and qualities appropriate to a knight; chivalrousness.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 96. Cursed caytyue! kniȝthod was it neuere To mysdo a ded body.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s T., 652. He was of knyghthod and of fredom flour.
c. 1450. Merlin, 56. Ther Pendragon dide merveloise knyghthode a-monge his enmyes.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxcviii. 441. The noble knighthode that was in them reconforted them.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., iii. Would it grow and bear the noble fruit of ‘gentle, very perfect knighthood’?
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, VIII. ii. (1876), 290. The perfect knighthood of Sydney.
5. The collective body of knights; a company of knights. Knighthood-errant (cf. KNIGHT-ERRANT).
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 116. The kyng and knyȝthode and clergye bothe Casten þat þe comune shulde hem-self fynde.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 11 b. By whiche … the people be susteyned the knyghtehode multiplied and the houses full of richesse.
1605. Chapman, etc. Eastw. Hoe, V. The knighthood now-a-days are nothing like the knighthood of old time.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 457. I was first … who drew The knighthood-errant of this realm … together under me.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 4. 76. It was against the centre of this formidable position that William arrayed his Norman knighthood.
† b. (trans. L. mīlitia.) Military force, host. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xiii. 4. The Lord of ostes comaundide to the knyȝthod of the bataile. Ibid., Luke ii. 13. A multitude of heuenly knyȝthod, heriynge God, and seyinge, Glorie be in the hiȝeste thingis to God. Ibid., Acts vii. 42. To serue to the knyȝthod of heuene.
6. attrib. † knighthood-money, a fine exacted from persons who refused to be knighted. (Abolished by Act 16 Chas. I., c. 20.)
c. 1670. Wood, Life, Jan. an. 1643 (O. H. S.), I. 79. He was fined in October 1630 for refusing the honour of knighthood, a matter then lately brought up to obtaine money for his majestie’s use. This money which was paid by all persons of 40li. per an. that refused to come in and be dub’d knights, was called knighthood-money.
