Origin and history of acknowledgement

late 15c., "admit or show one's knowledge," a blend of Middle English aknow "admit or show one's knowledge" and Middle English knowlechen "admit, acknowledge" (c. 1200; see knowledge). Middle English aknow is from Old English oncnawan "understand, come to recognize," from on (see on (prep.)) + cnawan "recognize" (see know).

"By 16th c. the earlier vbs. knowledge and a(c)know ... were obs., and acknowledge took their place" [OED, 1989]. In the merger, an unetymological -c- slipped in; perhaps the explanation is that when English kn- became a simple "n" sound, the -c- stepped up to preserve, in this word, the ancient "kn-" sound. Related: Acknowledged; acknowledging.

alternative spelling of acknowledgement. OED deems it "a spelling more in accordance with Eng[lish] values of letters." Compare judgment.

common suffix of Latin origin forming nouns, originally from French and representing Latin -mentum, which was added to verb stems to make nouns indicating the result or product of the action of the verb or the means or instrument of the action. In Vulgar Latin and Old French it came to be used as a formative in nouns of action. French inserts an -e- between the verbal root and the suffix (as in commenc-e-ment from commenc-er; with verbs in ir, -i- is inserted instead (as in sent-i-ment from sentir).

Used with English verb stems from 16c. (for example amazement, betterment, merriment, the last of which also illustrates the habit of turning -y to -i- before this suffix).

The stems to which -ment is normally appended are those of verbs; freaks like oddment & funniment should not be made a precedent of; they are themselves due to misconception of merriment, which is not from the adjective, but from an obsolete verb merry to rejoice. [Fowler]