ppl. a. (sb.) [pa. pple. of KNOW v.]
1. Become an object of knowledge; apprehended mentally, learned; familiar; often, in pregnant sense, familiar to all, generally known or recognized.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15895. A knaun freind he had þare-in, in he did him late.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XIII. i. (W. de W.), 440. There is noo ryuer but he spryngeth of some welle knowen or vnknowen.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 789. Those that by their favors more resembled other knowen men then him.
1622. S. Ward, Life of Faith in Death, Serm. (1862), 53. Death is the knownest and unknownest thing in the world.
1647–8. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 22. Men of known courage.
1673. Penn, The Chr. a Quaker, iii. Wks. (1726), 525. Paul … is very express in that known Passage to the Romans.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. on Fr. King, Wks. 1730, I. 59. Thou mak’st me swear, that am a known Non-juror.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. iii. 241. All known bodies possess more or less of this molecular motion.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 116. Some man of known ability and high reputation.
b. The known, that which is known; that which is objective in knowledge; the totality of known things.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 142. The condition of clear thought upon metaphysical subjects, is the separation of the two elements of knowledge, the knowing and the known.
1884. F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., March, 502. Knowledge is of course wholly within the sphere of the Known.
† 2. Possessed of knowledge; acquainted with something; learned or skilled in; informed or aware of. Known men, a name assumed by the Lollards. Obs.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 53. Thei besien hem silf forto leerne & knowe the Bible,… thei … clepen hem silf knowun men as thouȝ alle othere than hem ben unknowun.
1563. Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 820. After the great abiuration aforesayd, which was vnder William Smith Bishop of Lincolne: they were noted and termed among themselues by the name of knowne men, or iust fast men.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., V. ii. § 42. The two Lord chief Justices were in the same Treason (whose Education made them more known in the Laws of the Land).
B. absol. or as sb.
† 1. With poss. adj. One’s acquaintance. Obs.
a. 1325. Prose Ps. lxxxvii[i]. 8. Thou madest my knowen fer fram me.
1382. Wyclif, Luke ii. 44. Thei … souȝten him a mong his cosyns and knowen [1388 his knouleche].
2. A well-known person. colloq.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 47/1. It is chiefly from among this latter band of Small Knowns that we shall take the liberty of drawing the Sketches.
Hence † Knownly adv., in a known manner.
a. 1643. Ld. Falkland, Infallibility (1646), 194. Lawes,… to be obeyed, unless they should be publiquely and knownely found contrary to a greater authority.
