Knabe

From Middle High German knabe, from Old High German knabo, chnabo, from Proto-West Germanic *knabō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈknaːbə/

• Audio:

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Knabe m (weak, genitive Knaben, plural Knaben, diminutive Knäbchen n or Knäblein n or Knäbelein n)

1. (dated, now literary, humorous or Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and US) knave, boy, lad
   • 1782, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Erlkönig:

     Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm

     He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm

   • Edgar Alfred Bowring, The Poems of Goethe Translated in the Original Metres

• Knabe used to be the most common term for “boy” until about 1930.^[1] As the word was restricted to written style and had no basis in any regional dialects, it has since been replaced with more native Junge (throughout the language area) or Bub (alternatively in southern Germany and Austria).
• It still occurs in compounds such as Prügelknabe and Chorknabe.

• Chorknabe m (“choirboy”)
• Musterknabe (“goody-goody”)
• Prügelknabe m (“whipping boy”)

• → Esperanto: knabo
• → Kashubian: knôp

• “Knabe” in Duden online
• “Knabe” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache