The full OED entry includes reference to related usage that suggests some=20
poetic spiciness was intended:
3. concr. An ingenious contrivance; a toy, trinket, trifle, knick-knack. ?=
Obs.
1540 Heywood Four P.P. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 349 Needles, thread,=20
thimble, shears, and all such knacks. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 67=20
Why 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, A knacke, a toy, a tricke, a babies=20
cap: Away with it. ...
=86b. A choice dish; a delicacy, a dainty. Obs.
1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark viii. 56 The knackes and junckettes=20
of the Rhetoricians, the royall dishes of the Philosophers. 1592 Greene=20
Disc. Coosnage iii. 10 Hee wanted no ordinarie good fare, wine and other=20
knackes. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 574 The flower of=20
meale,+whereof the pasterers+doe make wafers, and such like daintie=20
knackes. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. i. Wks. (1851) 283 (tr. Horace Sat. i.=20
i. 24) As some teachers give to Boyes Junkets and Knacks, that they may=20
learne apace.
=86c. An ingeniously contrived literary composition; a quaint device or=
=20
conceit in writing. Obs.
1605 Camden Rem., Rythmes 26 Our Poets hath their knacks+as Ecchos,=20
Achrostiches, Serpentine verses [etc.]. 1641 Denham Petit. to Five Members=
=20
41 All those pretty knacks you composeAlas! what are they but poems in=20
prose? 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 98 Ovid that grand Master of love knacks. 1660=
=20
H. More Myst. Godl. x. xiii. 532 You+reproach them+that they have not taken=
=20
up your Allegorical knacks.
1. A trick; a device, artifice; formerly often, a deceitful or crafty=20
device, a mean or underhand trick; later esp. an adroit or ingenious method=
=20
of doing something, a clever expedient, a =91dodge=92.
c1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 1033 She ne used no suche knakkes=20
smale. c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 184 Coueitous laweieris wi=FE here gnackis=
&=20
iapis. a1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1395 Al =FEis+Is but a iape, who=
seith,=20
or a knak. c1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. v. (Parl. Beasts) xxx, =91Let be,=20
lowrence=92, quod scho, =91your courtlie knax=92. c1540 Earl of Surrey=
Poems=20
(1854) 68, I have found a neck To keep my men in guard. 1548 Udall Erasm.=
=20
Par. Luke Pref. 13 Swete pleasaunte knackes and conceiptes. 1568 Jacob &=20
Esau ii. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 214 That ever son of thine should play=20
such a lewd knack! ...
2. The =91trick=92 of dexterous performance; an acquired faculty of=
doing=20
something cleverly, adroitly, and successfully. (Now the leading sense.)
1581 Mulcaster Positions v. (1887) 34 They that haue any naturall=20
towardnesse to write well, haue a knacke of drawing to. ...
b. A =91trick=92 of action, speech, etc.; a personal habit of acting or=
=20
speaking in a particular way.
1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., If the knack of borrowing, or=20
robbing and pilfering rather, gets but a little further ground amongst=20
us,+it will+be harder for an English-man to speak his own tongue without=20
mingling others with it, than to speak a medly of sundry others with~out=20
bringing in his own. ...
At 10:06 AM 11/11/2003 -0500, Caroline Usher wrote:
>At 08:51 AM 11/11/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >So then the "nacks" could be a metaphor for the kind of "breathlessness"
> >experienced in a passionate encounter.
>
>No need to reach so far:
>
> 3. concr. An ingenious contrivance; a toy, trinket, trifle,=20
>=
<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/crossref?xrefed=3DOED&xrefword=3Dknick-knack=
>KNICK-KNACK.=20
> ? Obs.
>
> 1540 HEYWOOD Four P.P. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 349 Needles, thread,=20
> thimble, shears, and all such knacks. 1596 SHAKES. Tam. Shr. IV. iii. 67=
=20
> Why 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, A knacke, a toy, a tricke, a babies=
=20
> cap: Away with it. a1677 BARROW Serm. (1683) II. vii. 104 Springs, and=20
> wheels, and such mechanick knacks. 1715 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Wks. 557 A=20
> Thousand pretty Knacks..which she made with Fish-Bones and Shells, with=20
> Reeds and Rushes. 1825 LAMB Elia Ser. II. Superannuated Man, All the=20
> glittering and endless succession of knacks and gew~gaws. 1863 COWDEN=20
> CLARKE Shaks. Char. xiv. 360 The pedlar's knacks and gaudy trash [Wint.=20
> T. IV. iv.] absorb Mopsa's whole gloating vision.
>
>Check the third verse of the song, which lists some of the pedlar's=20
>kncks: "pins, points, laces and gloves."
>
>*********************************
>Caroline Usher
>DCMB Administrative Coordinator
>613-8155
>Box 91000
>--
Douglas E. Miller
Home: 203 270 1987, Cell: 203 733 6751
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
erymanguild.org
Everyman Guild: www.everymanguild.org
--
