kneifen

Derived from earlier kneipen, from Middle Low German knīpen, from Old Saxon *knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *knīpan. Cognate with Dutch knijpen. Doublet of kniepen (“to blink”), a more recent borrowing from modern Low German. The form with -f- is an adaptation to the High German consonantism, for which there may have been rare antetypes in northern dialects of Central German, but which was chiefly artificial. Kneipen remained predominant until the earlier 19th century, but was somewhat informa