#knaves

[racefortheironthrone]

I was reading your yeomen tag and saw the term knave refering to someone bellow a yeoman. But what is a knave?

As I’ve discussed in the past, a lot of our insulting terms for people started out as class signifiers:

a villain was originally a villein (another term for serf).

a knave was a servant (often the "knave" and the "knight" were opposing pairs) but also a low-status and thus dishonorable person.

likewise, "flunky," "minion," "lickspittle" and similar terms all originally were different (mostly insulting) terms for servants.

"vagrants," "vagabonds," and "sturdy beggars" were all descriptions of homeless people, either who were seen as inherently criminal and dangerous because they were disconnected from the feudal system. There is a strong crossover to anti-Romani/anti-Zigany slurs, as well as the "rootless cosmopolitan" variant of anti-semitism, in this category.

similarly, "bumpkins," "yokels," "rubes," "hicks," "rednecks," etc. were all insulting terms for people from rural areas, usually denoting their lack of education, sophistication, and their working in outdoor manual labor.

for some gendered versions, "sluts" and "slatterns" originally had connotations of being dirty, unkempt, and being a low-ranked servant like a scullery or kitchen maid (i.e, they're dirty because they're doing "the dirty work").

upper-class Brits still use "pleb" (plebian) as an insult today.

[gilgalahad]

The Hero, the kind-hearted Heretic, the rotten Saint

[cheseely]

biblically accurate arlecchino !!! 🥀

[phosbogey]

what a kind and reliable group

[wiryuu]

the knave

[smbhax]

From “When Meet the Immortals!” in Journey into Mystery #125, February 1966. Stan Lee script, Jack Kirby pencils, Vince Colletta inks, Artie Simek letters. Original colorist unknown. Photoshop color reduction.

[rockingbytheseaside]

✦ Pookie is back at it. He promises to bring his own shovel!

[mumatsi]

Same Dogday, same...

[prokopetz]

The fun thing about the knights and knaves puzzle is that no matter what goofy variant you come up with, not only has it already been considered, some maniac has worked out the optimal solution. What if there's a third guard who lies or tells the truth at random? It's been done. What if the guards will only answer yes/no questions, and also for some reason they understand your language but refuse to speak it, and you don't know which of the two words they may respond with means "yes" and which means "no"? Literal thesis papers have been written on that one. Logicians are absolute freaks for these guys.

[miyaneatworld]

Im a little obsessed with her ngl

[spirtnoe]

i mean…it's not getting worse

[edgichel]

THE KNAVE

[zephyrinx]

based on this tweet that im obsessed with

april 25 - 2024

[szivarvanyturmix02]

extremely common arlecchino W

[birdsofpasssage]

lights out

[mauricetheblurst]

gimme beaftf, gimme knavef, gimme all that I defire