an old Saxon word, which had at first a sense of simplicity and innocence, for it signified a boy: Sax. knapa, whence a knave child, or a boy, distinguished from a girl, in several old writers; afterwards it was taken for a servant boy, and at length for any servant man. It was also applied to a minister or officer who bore the shield or weapon of his superior; as field knapa, whom the Latins call armiger, and the French escuyer (14 Edw. III. c. 3). And it was sometimes of old made use of as a titular addition, as Joannes C. filius Wilhelmi C. de Derby, knave (22 Hen. VII. c. 37). The word is now perverted to the hardest meaning, viz. a false, deceitful fellow.