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April 27, 2010
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| Word of the Week--"knead" |
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Definition--to massage (flesh) with firm finger-movements.
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Discussion--Knead is a "kneat" word pronounced the same as "need". You need the word knead both to describe a massaging finger movement and using that movement to make a uniform mass, as in kneading bread dough.
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Etymology--Knead comes from the Middle English kneden which comes from the Old English cnedan. These terms are believed to be derived from the Indo-European base, gen-, which means to compress into a ball. The English term is probably a derivative of the Germanic term, kneth.
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| You can see these roots below in the German and Dutch equivalents. The Romance languages (French and Spanish) don't have a direct equivalent; they are based on the French term masser, from the Arabic mass, which means to touch or handle. The Italian term is based on the word for dough. |
Foreign Translations
| German: |
durchkneten |
| Dutch: |
kneden |
| French: |
(muscle) masser,
(dough) pétrir |
| Italian: |
impastare |
| Spanish: |
amasar, masajear |
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Jane Ellis
Previous Words of the Week
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