knave
knave / nāv/ • n. archaic a dishonest or unscrupulous man.DERIVATIVES: knav·er·y / -vərē/ n. (pl. -er·ies) .knav·ish adj.knav·ish·ly adv.knav·ish·ness n.ORIGIN: Old English cnafa ‘boy, servant’; related to German Knabe ‘boy.’
knave
knave another term for the ‘jack’ in cards. The word originally (in Old English) meant ‘boy, servant’, and then generally someone of low social status; in Middle English, the sense of ‘dishonest or unscrupulous man’ developed. The playing-card sense is recorded from the middle of the 16th century.
More From encyclopedia.com
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
knave