Knabe

German

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈknaːbə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

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

Usage notes

• Knabe used to be the most common term for “boy” until about 1930. 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.

Declension

Declension of Knabe [masculine, weak]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Knabe	die	Knaben
genitive	eines	des	Knaben	der	Knaben
dative	einem	dem	Knaben	den	Knaben
accusative	einen	den	Knaben	die	Knaben

Derived terms

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

Descendants

• → Esperanto: knabo
• → Kashubian: knôp

Further reading

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