{"id":17416,"date":"2019-01-23T23:41:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T22:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=17416"},"modified":"2019-01-23T23:41:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T22:41:26","slug":"knufflige-knuffelbeests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=17416","title":{"rendered":"Knufflige Knuffelbeests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/8113246@N02\/35867664803\/in\/photolist-WDva8R-JvNARD-nwBZFE-7syqfK-c4P91m-efHskT-dMi4ZY-b2smon-61CtZq-4yFYL6-adR2i2-pMa2hz-dKykHs-fjMJ6g-nS8TL1-ne1VGL-57m6P1-p7r5ed-96CnPd-jAEpJf-QCB518-jcxHp5-RxrYBb-9wh12e-b9mmvk-eVDRKk-bHRhha-fkDnSN-ES5oZo-241k5xS-8T9Rkk-hFHLvz-fk2Tmo-fk2S35-9Fo4ge-9e3AT9-bVVgA9-fkqWyb-4i9M9t-2YKLeF-6b5k45-oPYmSG-99A474-2cRyq9x-24eY1iS-ZoxgWq-am7Fd4-28p4w2G-25cPCgx-28D3mai\" title=\"Giant Giraffe\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4361\/35867664803_8af050b8d0_m.jpg\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 20px 30px;\" alt=\"Giant Giraffe\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\"\/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If someone called you a <strong>knuff<\/strong>, would you see it as a compliment or an insult?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Knuff<\/strong> is an obsolete English word that means a lout or clown, so it would be an insult. It comes from the Old English <em>cnof<\/em> (a churl). The k is silent, but I think in Old English the c was pronounced [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuff\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Possibly related Swedish words include <strong>knuff<\/strong> (nudge, push, boost, dig, shove) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.bab.la\/dictionary\/swedish-english\/knuff\">source<\/a>] and <strong>knuffa<\/strong> (to push, nudge, shove) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.bab.la\/dictionary\/swedish-english\/knuffa\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Possibly related German words include <strong>knuffen<\/strong> (to nudge; to jab; to pinch (usually playfully or even tenderly)) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffen\">source<\/a>] and <strong>knuffig<\/strong> (cuddly) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffig#German\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Possibly related Dutch words include <strong>knuffelen<\/strong> (to cuddle, hug), from the Low German <em>knuffen<\/em> (to poke; bump; nudge) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffelen#Dutch\">source<\/a>], <strong>knuffig<\/strong> (cuddly) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffig#German\">source<\/a>], <strong>knuffel<\/strong> (hug, cuddle, stuffed toy) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffel\">source<\/a>] and <strong>knuffelbeest<\/strong> (stuffed toy) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knuffel\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>knuff<\/strong> came up in one of my Swedish lessons this week, and as I like the sound of it, I thought I&#8217;d write about it.  There&#8217;s something about that combination of k and n and the beginning of a word that makes it sound cute and cuddly to me.<\/p>\n<p>Which sounds and combinations of sounds (in any language) most appeal to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If someone called you a knuff, would you see it as a compliment or an insult? Knuff is an obsolete English word that means a lout or clown, so it would be an insult. It comes from the Old English cnof (a churl). The k is silent, but I think in Old English the c [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,116,10,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-language","category-swedish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}