APAD: Knock on Wood

Meaning:

   This phrase is used by people who rap their knuckles on a piece of wood

   hoping to stave off bad luck.

   

   In the UK, the phrase `touch wood` is used - often jokingly by tapping one's

   head. 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".

 

Background:

   The derivation may be the association that wood and trees have with good

   spirits in mythology, or with the Christian cross. It used to be considered

   good luck to tap trees to let the wood spirits within know you were there.

   Traditions of this sort still persist in Ireland.

 

   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'.

 

   `Knock on wood' is known from the early 20th century; for example, The

   Syracuse Herald, February 1905:

     Neglecting to knock on wood may have been responsible for the weather's

     unseemly behaviour today.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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I met the folks who ran the new Sunnyvale BJJ academy around 2017. Back then,

they were Ralph Gracie Mountain View. I started with them but quit after a few

months and later trained in Redwood City. They were happy and surprised to see

me. I must have changed a lot.

 

In the past weeks, I found that most of the guys who had stuck it out since had

gotten their black belts. Tuesday before sparring I asked Ronaldo, a 53-year-old

Filipino and one from the early gang, if he had any injuries I should be aware

of. He gave me a big grin, thumped on the mat, and said: "Knock on wood!"