Also knott. [Found from 15th c.; varying from 17th c. with knat, GNAT2; origin unknown.
The conjecture of Camden, adopted by Drayton, and commemorated by Linnæus in the specific name Canutus, that the bird was named after King Cnút or Canute, ‘because believed to be a visitant from Denmark,’ is without historical or even traditional basis.]
A bird of the Snipe family (Tringa Canutus), also called Red-breasted Sandpiper; it breeds within the Arctic Circle, but is common on the British coasts during the late summer and autumn.
[1422. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, III. 136/2.]
1452. Bill of fare, in A. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxf., 26. 3rd Table. Plover, Knottys, Styntis, Quayles.
1572. J. Jones, Bathes Buckstone, 10. Rayle, Curlyew, Cnotwyppe [= Cnot, Wyppe], Wodcocke, Snype, or any other clouen footed fowles.
1586. Camden, Brit. (1607), 408. Knotts, i. Canuti aves vt opinor, e Dania enim aduolare creduntur.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxv. (1748), 368. The Knot, that called was Canutus Bird of old, of that great King of Danes, his name that still doth hold.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VI. 28. The long legged plover, the knot and the turnstone, are rather the guests than the natives of this island.
1863. C. A. Johns, Home Walks, 21. Mixed with them in the same flock we repeatedly saw Sanderlings, purple Sandpipers and Knots.
1881. Spectator, 27 Aug., 1108. In the Nares Arctic Expedition Capt. Fielden discovered the breeding ground of the sanderling and the knot.
