Now dial. Forms: α. 4 knucche, knohche, knycche, 4–6 knytche, 5 knyche, 6 knoche, 6– knitch. β. 6 nytche, 8– nitch. [ME. knücche, knycche:—OE. ʓecnycc(e (occurring in the sense ‘bond’); from same root as LG. knuck(e, Ger. knocke, a bundle of heckled flax. Ultimate etym. obscure: cf. tocnuicte and ʓecnyht from a vb. cnycc(e)an in Lindisf. Gl.] A bundle (of wood, hay, corn, etc.) tied together; a sheaf or faggot.
α. [c. 950. Durham Ritual (Surtees), 59. From synna usra ʓicnyccum [L. a peccatorum nostrorum nexibus]. Ibid., 66. Deaðes ʓicnyccum [L. mortis nexibus].]
13[?]. XI Pains of Hell, 77, in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., 253. Ligate per fasciculos … Byndeþ hem in knucchen [MS. knucchenus].
13[?]. Coer de L., 2985. The ffootmen kast in knohches of hay,… And ffylde the dyke fful upryghte.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xiii. 30. Gedre ȝee to gedre dernels,… and byndeth hem to gidre in knytchis [gloss or smale bundelis].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcvii. (Tollem. MS.). [Flax] bounde in knytches [1535 nytches] and bondeles.
1481. Nottingham Rec., II. 320. xvj. knitche de strey lates.
1519. Churchw. Acc. Stratton, in Archæologia, XLVI. 207. Paid for strow v knochys jd.
1552. Huloet, Knytche or bownche of woode, fascis.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 203. Himselfe tooke out of the sheafe or knitch the darts … one by one.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xxviii. If I dared break a hedge for a knitch o’ wood, they’d put me in prison.
β. 1535. [see 1398 in α].
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6447/4. Taking Straws out of a Nitch of Straw.
1823. Examiner, 31 Aug., 574/1. He was seen to go towards the thicket, for the purpose … of getting a nitch of fern.
1882. West. Morn. News, 25 Nov., 4/2. Wanted, 200 Nitches of well-made good REED, for thatching.
1888. Edin. Rev., July, 129. Nitch is a faggot of wood which a hedger has by custom a right to carry home at night.
