knee

The k in knee was pronounced. Old English cneo was said with both consonants, and so was Middle English, and so was English up to about 1600 — kuh-nee. The cluster was then simplified in speech, but printing had already fixed the spelling, so the letter stayed behind. This is the genuine kind of silent letter, a record of speech rather than an editorial claim, and it is the same story in knight, knife, gnat and wrist.

The word is deeply native, with cousins across Germanic — German Knie, Dutch knie, Old Norse kne — and beyond, from an Indo-European root meaning "knee" or "angle" that also gives Latin genu and, at a remove, English genuflect. Its extended uses are late and homely: across someone's knee for spanking from 1866, knee-breeches from 1827, and knee-slapper for a good joke only from 1955.

knee
(n.)
"joint between the principal bones of the leg," Old English
cneo
,
cneow
"knee," from Proto-Germanic
*knewa-
(source also of Old Norse
kne
, Old Saxon
kneo
, Old Frisian
kni
, Middle Dutch
cnie
, Dutch
knie
, Old High German
kniu
, German
Knie
, Gothic
kniu
), from PIE root
*genu-
(1) "knee; angle." For pronunciation, see
kn-
.
To be
across (someone's) knee
in reference to spanking is from 1866.
Knee-breeches
is from 1827;
knee-pants
is from 1858.
Knee-slapper
"funny joke" is from 1955.

knee
(v.)
early 13c., "to bend the knee, kneel," from Old English
cneowian
, from
cneow
(see
knee
(n.)). The meaning "to strike with the knee" is first recorded 1892. Related:
Kneed
;
kneeing
.
also from early 13c.

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