Knocking on wood: Origin, Meaning and When It Actually Started

Q: How old is this superstition?

First recorded: 19th century in its current form. Usually traced to pre-Christian belief in spirits living in trees, but the documented trail is much shorter — the phrase and the gesture appear together only from the 1800s, possibly from a children's chasing game called Tiggy Touchwood.

When it actually starts

How old is this one

First recorded 19th century in its current form

That makes it about 176 years old

Rank by age 32 oldest of 40 dated here

Category Speech

Searched 590 a month

Usually traced to pre-Christian belief in spirits living in trees, but the documented trail is much shorter — the phrase and the gesture appear together only from the 1800s, possibly from a children's chasing game called Tiggy Touchwood.

What people say

Said after tempting fate, to cancel it.

What is going on

One of the few superstitions performed openly by people who describe themselves as sceptics, which makes it more a verbal reflex than a belief.

Where it applies. Almost universal in Europe; in some countries the phrase exists without the knock.

Other speech superstitions

Whistling indoors 110/mo

Recorded around the same time

Knocking on wood is the 32th oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.

Finding a penny 1840 New Year superstitions 1850 Whistling indoors 1850 Wedding superstitions 1871

First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →