Neglecting to knock on wood may have been responsible for the weather's unseemly behaviour today. Knock on Wood: Luck, Chance, and the Meaning of Everything FREE delivery Wednesday, October 19 if you spend 25 on items shipped by Amazon Or fastest delivery. 'Knock on wood' is known from the early 20th century for example, The Syracuse Herald, February 1905: There probably is some old English expression for averting evil, but it does not come to mind "I touch wood," "Bar omen," "Bar ill-luck," seem clumsy. It isn't clear when 'touch wood' began to be used as a token of good fortune but it must have been by 1850, when the academic correspondence magazine Notes and Queries published this: This dates from at least the early 17th century, when it is quoted by John Heywood in his A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue. The British version of the phrase - 'touch wood', pre-dates the American 'knock on wood' and was itself preceded by a Latin version - 'absit omen', meaning 'far be that omen from us'. Traditions of this sort still persist in Ireland. It used to be considered good luck to tap trees to let the wood spirits within know you were there. What's the origin of the phrase 'Knock on wood'?īe the association that wood and trees have with good spirits in mythology, or The phrases are sometimes spoken when a person is already experiencing some good fortune and hope that it will continue - for example "I've been winning on every race - touch wood". A phrase used to express that something will or will not happen. In the UK, the phrase ' touch wood' is used - often jokingly by tapping one's head. Phrase is used by people who rap their knuckles on a piece of wood hoping to stave off bad luck. Jim Carrey ‘Solitude is Dangerous’ Quote What's the meaning of the phrase 'Knock on wood'?
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