Canoodle--bibliographic reference

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Gerald Cohen, with material primarily from e-mail messages of SAMUEL
>JONES and JIM RADER: "Possible German Origin of Slang _Canoodle_
>'kiss, hug, fondle." in: _Comments on Etymology_, vol. 28, no. 3,
>Dec. 1998, pp.2-6.

The verb certainly looks equivalent to "knuddeln". In fact, one Web
English/German dictionary gives exactly and only "knuddeln" as a
translation of "canoodle". But what is the age of the word "knuddeln" in
German? [I don't have access to the CoE issue cited.]

On the Web I find the story (for which I don't vouch myself, of course) of
an embarrassed English-speaker who asked a German waitress for a "Knudel"
("cuddle") when he wanted a "Knoedel" ("dumpling").

-- Doug Wilson