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From: aeb@turing.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of that strongest of words
Message-ID: <213@turing.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 01:10:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: turing.213
Posted: Fri Oct 19 01:10:05 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Oct-84 07:00:07 EDT
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Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
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-- NEUKEN (NOOKIE) --
I am too lazy to make an extensive study, but since there have
been several articles about the Dutch word 'neuken' and English
dialect words in the same style, even connecting these to Arabic,
let me at least show that these words belong to a good old
IndoEuropean root (*kneu- or more generally *ken- (or *gen-)).

A good start is the old English word  hnocc  'penis', and
this is the oldest word in this family I know of with a sexual
connotation.
But it is interesting to note that there is an extensive parallelism
in the semantic development between the words in the *ken- and those
in the *gen- family, and the latter also gently generated such general
words as gene, genus and jaunty genitals of kind kin.
[Note that IE *g becomes g in Latin and Greek and k in Germanic,
while IE *k becomes c in Latin, k in Greek and h in Germanic, where
usually the h disappears altogether.]

The basic meaning of these roots is 'to bend, to press together'.
In English one has neck and nook with -k- suffix (*knek-), nut with
-d- suffix (*knud-). Hnocc derives from *kneug-, but we also have
Celtic words derived from *kneuk- : OldIrish cnocc, OldBreton cnoch,
Welsh cnwch 'hill', cnuch 'joint, coitus'.

Words derived from *kneug- in Germanic:
Dutch has nok 'ridge, stud, cam' (German Nocken, Swedish nock, Danish nok)
	and nuk 'freak, whim' (G. Nuecke, Sw. nyck, Da. nykke) and neuken.
German and Austrian dialects have words like Nocke, Nokkerl 'little
	meat balls (in the soup)'.
Sw. has nucka 'old spinster'. Da. dialect has nykke 'to push, pinch, jerk'.
OldNorse: hnykkr 'jerk', hnykill 'tumour', hnuka 'to sit on one's heels',
	hnykkja 'to pull towards oneself', OSw. nykkja 'thrust'.
Icel. hnokinn 'bent', hnukr 'hill top', hnokki 'little iron hook'.
Shetl. nikk 'sudden pain', njukk 'push'.
OldEnglish: gehnycled 'bent', hnocc 'penis'.

The present discussion implies that the old English word didnt disappear
from the language but survives in various dialects (both Scotland and
Minnesota have been mentioned).
The conclusion must be that the verb was derived from the noun, and that
the noun got its meaning because of the bent nature of an erected penis.
-- 
      Andries Brouwer -- CWI, Amsterdam -- {philabs,decvax}!mcvax!aeb