Have you ever had to knock on wood?

Question

And where exactly did that idiom come from, anyway?

Answer 1

According to Steve Roud, the earliest documented references to "touching wood" are from 1805 and 1828 and concern chasing games like "Tiggy-touch-wood", where you are safe from being "tagged" if you "touch wood". Says Roud, "'Tiggy-touch-wood' was an extremely well-known game, and it is most likely that the phrase passed into everyday language."



And yes, I have knocked on wood :)

Answer 2

Though many people have opinions on the matter of where that phrase came from, nobody can really say for certain. It actually doesn't appear in use until relatively recently... used as an expression in the way we're familiar with it for only a little more than a hundred years.

Which means if it dates back (as some claim) to fairy luck, pieces of the true cross, or druidical practices, then the expression went unrecorded for at least a thousand years. More likely it was derived from a children's game invented in recent history, as some hypothesize.

Answer 3

This age-old expression originates form far beyond biblical times in the days of the cave man- when all man had to conceal his pitched tent was twine and leaves. So, out of the fear of a desperate appearance, man would literally have to club it violently to return his involuntary reflex to it's more natural flaccid state- for a better chance or LUCK with his new found attraction- hence the term "knocking on wood".

Have I ever??

Well, let's just say it does have a mind of it's own :D