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Meaning & History
German status name for a young man or a page, from Middle High German knabe (English knave). In aristocratic circles this term denoted a page or squire (a youth destined to become a knight), while among artisans it referred to a journeyman’s assistant or (as a short form of Lehrknabe) ‘apprentice’. In the 15th century a semantic split between Knabe and its variants Knape, Knappe, Knapp resulted in Knabe meaning ‘boy’ and Knapp(e) ‘servant’, ‘apprentice’, and ‘miner’ in modern German.