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knotty

adj
/ˈnɒti/UK/ˈnɑti/US

Etymology

From Middle English knotti, knotty (“having a knot in it; full of knots; tied together (?); resembling a knot, knotlike; having knobs or protuberances; bulging, convex; of a tree, branch, etc.: full of knots, gnarled; of a plant cutting to be grafted or planted: full of buds or eyes; having joints (?); having swollen joints; of flesh: glandular; of flesh: granular, lumpy, especially, having many swellings; mangy, scurfy (?); having pimples (?); of cauterization: carried out on glandular tissue; (figuratively) of a question or problem: difficult, intricate”) [and other forms], from knotte (“knot; pattern of intersecting lines; coil of a snake”) (from Old English cnotta (“knot”), from Proto-Germanic *knuttô (“knot”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gned- (“to bind”)) + -i (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). The English word may be analysed as knot + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’). Cognates * Dutch knoestig (“knotty”) * German knotig (“knotty”) * Swedish knotig, knutig (“knotty”)

  1. derived from *gned-✻ — “to bind”
  2. derived from *knuttô✻ — “knot”
  3. derived from cnotta — “knot”
  4. inherited from knotti

Definitions

  1. Of string or something stringlike

    Of string or something stringlike: full of, or tied up, in knots.

    • Their heads are long, their haire curld, and ſeeming rather wooll, then haire; tis blacke and knotty: […]

  2. Of a part of the body, a tree, etc.

    Of a part of the body, a tree, etc.: full of knots (knobs or swellings); gnarled, knobbly.

    • a knotty pine
    • If thou murmur'ſt, I vvwill rend an Oake / And peg thee in his knotty entrailes, till / Thou haſt hovvl'd avvay tvvelve vvinters.

  3. Complicated or tricky

    Complicated or tricky; complex, difficult.

    • a knotty problem
    • crop-headed, short-haired
    • As for the Paſſions and Studies of the Minde, Auoid Enuie; Anxious Feares; Anger fretting invvards; Subtill and knottie Inquiſitions; Ioyes, and Exhilarations in Exceſſe; Sadneſſe not Communicated.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Of an austere or hard nature

      Of an austere or hard nature; rugged.

The neighborhood

Derived

knottily, knottiness, Knotty Ash, unknotty

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at knotty. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01knotty02knobs03knob04handle05establishments06establishment07permanent08curliness09curly

A definitional loop anchored at knotty. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at knotty

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA