Knocking on wood is a customary response to good fortune or a hopeful prediction: people say the phrase, sometimes tapping wood, to avoid tempting fate. Its everyday meaning is clear, but explaining how the custom began requires more caution.
What does “knock on wood” mean?
Cambridge Dictionary identifies “knock on wood” as an informal American expression and “touch wood” as the British equivalent. People use it after discussing past luck or a hoped-for outcome.
For example, someone might say, “The train has been on time all week—knock on wood.” The last phrase adds a playful reservation: the speaker hopes the good run continues. This is an example of usage, not a claim that the words influence a train timetable.
A documented historical example: touchwood games
Alice Bertha Gomme’s The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, volume II, published in 1898, records a game called Ticky Touchwood. In several descriptions, a pursued player could avoid capture by touching wood. Local rules varied; one account specifically excluded trees and other growing wood.
The entry also records names such as Tiggy Touchwood and examples using doors, rails, fences, or a designated home. These details make the source more informative than a general statement that Victorian children used trees as a universal safe zone. Read Gomme’s original entry, pages 292–293.
This record establishes that wood served as a protective boundary in documented children’s games. It does not establish that those games created the modern luck expression. A resemblance between two customs is a starting point for historical research, not proof of transmission.
Why origin stories need labels
Accounts of this custom sometimes connect it to Celtic tree spirits or Christian reverence for the cross. Establishing either connection would require documents linking the earlier practice to later use of the expression. The sources examined here do not establish that chain of transmission.
Three different questions help avoid that mistake:
| Question | Evidence needed |
|---|---|
| Did people attach religious meaning to wood or trees? | A source describing that particular belief |
| Did people use a specific touching or knocking gesture? | A record of the action, place, and period |
| Did that gesture become the present-day expression? | Evidence connecting the earlier practice to later usage |
A source answering the first question cannot automatically answer the third. This article therefore leaves the ultimate origin open rather than choosing an attractive story without adequate support.
Why knocking on wood may feel reassuring
Yan Zhang, Jane L. Risen, and Christine Hosey studied this question in Reversing One’s Fortune by Pushing Away Bad Luck, published online in 2013 and in the 2014 volume of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Their experiments examined judgments after statements that seemed to tempt fate. Participants who knocked away from themselves, or performed certain other outward actions, judged a feared outcome as less likely than participants in comparison conditions. The researchers related this effect to less vivid mental representations of the unwanted event.
The distinction is between perceived risk and actual risk. The paper does not show that knocking prevents accidents. It also does not establish the historical origin of the ritual or a universal effect for every person. Read the research paper hosted by the National University of Singapore; DOI: 10.1037/a0034023.
Three things to keep separate
The phrase has a recognizable conversational meaning. Historical collections document some wood-touching practices. Psychological experiments investigate how actions influence judgments. Each is useful, but none is interchangeable with the others.
For readers comparing traditions, the practical question is therefore more precise than “Is this ancient superstition true?” Ask what the speaker means, what the historical source actually records, and what the research actually measured.
Related reading
Explore the superstition collection for other beliefs and cultural taboos.
Sources
- Cambridge Dictionary, “Knock on wood”: modern usage and the US/UK distinction.
- Alice Bertha Gomme (1898), The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, volume II, “Ticky Touchwood,” pp. 292–293: historical game descriptions.
- Zhang, Y., Risen, J. L., & Hosey, C. (2014), Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1171–1184: research on perceived misfortune; online-first publication August 12, 2013.
