Touch wood ?

Question

why do people say touch wood , when they say something that will hopefully not happen or return . e.g "i have never had the flu , touch wood"

why do we say this , and if possible were does it come from ?

thanks x

Answer 1

It's still a pretty popular superstition (somwhere along with black cats and the number 13). You're transfering the negativity into wood, which is a strong substance both physically and psychically. You're grounding it basically: like you would a live wire. With wood.

Answer 2

To touch wood or knock on wood is a superstition action to ward off any evil consequences or bad luck, perhaps because of some recent action you’ve taken or untimely boasting about your good fortune (“I’ve never been in danger of drowning, touch wood”); it can also be a charm to bring good luck.

The origin is unknown, though some writers have pointed to pre-Christian rituals involving the spirits of sacred trees such as the oak, ash, holly or hawthorn. There is, I’m told, an old Irish belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. There’s also a belief that the knocking sound prevents the Devil from hearing your unwise comments. Others have sought a meaning in which the wood symbolises the timber of the cross, but this may be a Christianisation of an older ritual. It wasn’t always wood that was lucky: in older days, iron was also thought to have magical properties, and to touch iron was an equivalent preventative against ill-fortune.

The phrase itself is relatively modern, as the oldest citation for the British version of the phrase, touch wood, that I can find dates only from 1899. The American equivalent knock on wood is roughly contemporary, with my first example from 1905.

Answer 3

Knocking on wood, and the spoken expression "knock on wood" or "touch wood" are used as a charm to bring good luck or to avoid "tempting fate" after making some boast or similar statement.

The expression is usually used in the hope that a good thing will continue to occur after it has been acknowledged. So, for example, one might say: "The rain looks like holding off, knock on wood", or "Knock on wood, I'm much better now."

It is commonly thought that knocking on wood has been a superstitious action to ward off evil throughout history. Some believe it has to do with knocking on the wooden cross. Another explanation for this practice is the pagan belief that spirits (dryads) lived in trees. By knocking on the wood of a tree while making some sort of a bold statement, the speaker could prevent the spirit from hearing him and stop the spirit from interfering.

However, there is no evidence for such theories, and the superstition has not been traced beyond children's games of tag of the early nineteenth century.

~from wikipedia

Answer 4

some off beat answers here. but most are good.
touch wood would most likely come from the Druids. AS they had sacred trees which they would touch,hug, lay against to absorb the trees wisdom from the earth that they are embedded in plus any Sprite that may live in the tree.
knock on wood is a way to avert any bad luck coming from boasting about not catching any thing or any such thing. most tables and such were made of oak ,a tree of protection.

Answer 5

It`s a form of touching the wood that was used to make the cross,,saying it is for good luck,,

Answer 6

It actually dates back to times long gone....people used to touch wood because they believed they could calm wicked spirits down and particularly,they would placate god Thor(the father of all the Gods,equivalent to Zeus in the Norse mythology!!It is said that the saying originated in England.

Answer 7

That saying goes back to ancient times in pre-history when our ancestors were basically hunter and gathers. And when living off the land really meant something. People use to knock on fruit bearing tree to wake up the God of their time. And to hope that these trees remember to bare fruit in their seasons. That is really where the term knocking on wood came from...............

Answer 8

Its just an old superstition that people used to use to avoid tempting fate, have no idea why but I do it myself and if I drop a pair of scissors on the floor I always place them on wood and make a wish, works for me.

Answer 9

Touch wood comes from knock on wood. WAY WAY long ago, they believed that if you said something, faeries and pixies would hear and make it come true. So, while they said it, they would knock on a tree--where the faeries were hiding of course--to keep them from hearing.

Answer 10

I thought this had something to do with when people use to carry what they believed were fragments of the One True Cross (the Crucifix) and they'd touch it for luck when they spoke about something bad possibly happening.