Theories of 'Knowledge'

The funny thing about the word 'knowledge' is that it's not really known how the word came about. The first part is pretty simple; in older tongues all the way back to theoretical proto-IndoEuropean, the root *gno- is the same. That is, the English know is related very closely to the Greek gnosis, which means 'knowing'. It must be one of the oldest words, because almost every European language has a similar formation.

But it's the second part that gives people a headache. Why is there a '-ledge' at the end? Some people think that it's like the -lich at the end of German words, which roughly indicates an adverb (e.g. German natürlich = English 'naturally'). By that token, German kenntliche should mean 'know-ly', that is, with the property of 'knowing' as applied to an action. But it doesn't quite work that way; I think kenntliche means 'identifiable' — that is, 'known'.

If that's the way it works, then 'knowledge' must mean 'that which is known'. To extrapolate, then, a word 'X-ledge' must mean 'that which is X-ed'. But what other words in English have that '-ledge' bit at the end? Of course, there's 'acknowledge', but that's cheating, since it's obvious that 'acknowledge' is related and simply means that you admit you know. (The one I hope nobody has come up with yet is 'priviledge'. There isn't such a word.)

So here we are, stuck on a ledge. No, not allegedly, or privilegedly, but just ledge-lich. Urk. I really need to sleep earlier, or I shall become uninterledgible. Oops. I mean, unintelligible. Argh.