Why believing in ghosts can make you a better person said in order to avoid bad luck, either when you mention good luck that you have had in the past. The derivation may be the association that wood and trees have with good spirits in mythology, or with the. This beautiful wooden stacking rainbow is made from 7 different types Qty. This natural wooden stacking windmill will delight toddlers Age: Qty. Silicon Valley’s latest fad is dopamine fasting – and that may not be as crazy as it soundsįeasting rituals – and the cooperation they require – are a crucial step toward human civilization knock on wood définition, signification, ce quest knock on wood: 1. Whats the origin of the phrase Knock on wood. Discoveroo - Windmill Stackeroo - Natural Wood. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
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Knocking on wood may seem trivial, but it is one small way people quell their fears in a life full of anxieties. The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski has a theory about such actions, called the “ anxiety-ritual theory.” It states that the anxiety created by uncertainty leads people to turn to magic and ritual to gain a sense of control. That puts knocking on wood in a category with other “conversion rituals” like throwing salt over one’s shoulder: actions people perform, almost automatically, to “undo” any bad luck just created. Still they knock, to avoid negative consequences. I’d wager few, if any, people today think – after saying something that might bring bad luck – “I’d better ask the tree spirits for help!” So it’s possible – even likely – that the phrase and the ritual predate its first appearance in print. Of course, much folklore is learned informally, by word of mouth or customary behavior. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase “touch wood” only back to the early 19th century, locating its origins in a British children’s tag game called Tiggy-touch-wood, in which children could make themselves “exempt…from capture touching wood.”
However, no tangible evidence supports these origin stories. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, “traditionally, certain trees, such as the oak, ash, hazel, hawthorn and willow, had a sacred significance and thus protective powers.”įurthermore, the theory goes, Christian reformers in Europe may have deliberately transformed this heathenish belief into a more acceptable Christian one by introducing the idea that the “wood” in “knock on wood” referred to the wood of the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion.