kneifen

• kneipen (archaic)

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 informal. The more standard-looking kneifen then fully established itself in written German and displaced kneipen by the mid-20th century.

• IPA^(key): /ˈknaɪ̯fən/

• Audio:

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kneifen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present kneift, past tense kniff, past participle gekniffen, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive or intransitive) to pinch, to squeeze
2. (intransitive) to chicken out; to back out; to shirk

   vor etwas kneifen ― to shirk something

Kneifen in the sense of to pinch and synonymous zwicken are common throughout the German language area, zwicken is, however, preferrably used in southern regions and kneifen in central and northern regions.

• Kneipe
• kniepen

• “kneifen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “kneifen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “kneifen” in Duden online
• “kneifen” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• “kneifen” in OpenThesaurus.de