the.com/knocker
A doorbell for people who distrust electricity and love a good metal smack.
means A hinged metal fitting on a door that you lift and drop to rap against a plate, announcing yourself the old-fashioned way.
from Straightforward Old English/Germanic stock — 'knock' traces to Middle English 'knokken,' imitating the very sound it describes (a thump echoed in Old Norse 'knoka' too), with '-er' simply tacked on for 'the thing that does it.' No hidden drama here: it's one of language's honest onomatopoeias, naming the object by the noise it makes.
- origin
- Common in Europe by the 1300s
- etymology
- From old english cnocian, meaning to knock
- design flex
- Often cast as lions, hands, or gargoyles
- slang use
- British slang for breasts since 1920s