It's a sentence I always punctuate by knocking on wood.
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"I'm knocking on wood, but we haven't had a single test failure," says Cantrell.
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"I was like, 'OK Matt, we're going to get it done,'" she said, knocking on wood again.
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We're knocking on wood that things continue to go well for NASA and its intrepid new probe. [NASA]
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Similar to knocking on wood, crossing your fingers originally meant you wanted God's protection, and not just good luck.
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Knocking on wood was soon associated with safety and survival, and so the practice lived on after the Inquisition.
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Today such measures can be no better than knocking on wood, thanks to a complex crime known as synthetic-identity fraud.
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Knocking on wood is one thing, but doing things like fighting over wedding bouquets and ripping flowers apart is another story.
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Like any good superstition, the exact origins of knocking on wood are lost to time, but there are a few commonly held theories about its roots.
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Across the board, it seems that knocking on wood has always been meant to call upon a higher power to keep people safe for a bit.
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Touching or knocking on wood is an old superstitious custom for good luck, and I'm a very superstitious guy—so that might have something to do with it.
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She is constantly knocking on wood, and she and her daughters have a tradition of making a spitting sound—" toi toi toi "—at their fingers to ward off something sinister.
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Narrator: So despite how crazy these superstitions may seem, you&aposre not likely to stop knocking on wood any time soon, if your brain has anything to say about it.
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And with iterations of the practice cropping up around the world, knocking on wood (or "touching wood," as they say in the UK and Australia) is one of the most common superstitions.
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And all of these potential origins are actually pretty consistent with how we view knocking on wood today: We may not go around hitting every bookshelf we see just because we want some luck — for the most part, we only knock on wood when we're worried we might have drummed up some negativity with something we said or did.
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"Knocking on wood" is believed to protect from all evils.
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In addition, there are certain apotropaic gestures or practices found in large parts of the Western world, such as the knocking on wood or the fingers crossed gesture.
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Knock on wood illustration Knocking on wood, also touch wood, is an apotropaic tradition of literally touching, tapping, or knocking on wood, or merely stating that one is doing or intending to do so, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favorable prediction or boast, or a declaration concerning one's own death or another unfavorable situation. In some versions of the tradition, only one person, the speaker, is meant to "knock on wood".
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Quite Interesting Ltd. Retrieved 7 June 2015. Opera singers use "Toi toi toi", an idiom used to ward off a spell or hex, often accompanied by knocking on wood. One explanation sees "toi toi toi" as the onomatopoeic rendition of spitting three times.
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There are many theories as to the origin of Toi toi toi as an idiom. In folklore it was used to ward off a spell or hex, often accompanied by knocking on wood or spitting. One origin theory sees "toi toi toi" as the onomatopoeic rendition of spitting three times, a common practice in many parts of the world to ward off evil spirits. Saliva traditionally had demon- banishing powers.
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An alternative operatic good luck charm is the phrase toi toi toi, originally an idiom used to ward off a spell or hex, often accompanied by knocking on wood, and onomatopoeic spitting (or imitating the sound of spitting). Amongst English actors break a leg is the usual phrase, while for professional dancers the traditional saying is merde, from French for "shit". In Spanish and Portuguese, the phrase is respectively mucha mierda and muita merda, or "lots of shit".
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In Portuguese, it's "muita merda", with the same meaning. This term refers to the times when carriages would take the audience to the theatre. A quick look to the street in front of the venue would tell if the play was successful: a lot of horse dung would mean many carriages had stopped to leave spectators. Opera singers use "Toi toi toi", an idiom used to ward off a spell or hex, often accompanied by knocking on wood, and onomatopoeic, spitting (or imitating the sound of spitting).
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Apotropaic magic (from Greek "to ward off" from "away" and "to turn") is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of vague superstition or out of tradition, as in good luck charms (perhaps some token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures such as crossed fingers or knocking on wood. The Greeks made offerings to the "averting gods" (), chthonic deities and heroes who grant safety and deflect evil.
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With fingers pointing down, it is a common Mediterranean apotropaic gesture, by which people seek protection in unlucky situations (it is thus a more Mediterranean equivalent of knocking on wood). Thus, for example, the President of the Italian Republic, Giovanni Leone, shocked the country when, while in Naples during an outbreak of cholera, he shook the hands of patients with one hand while with the other behind his back he superstitiously made the corna, presumably to ward off the disease or in reaction to being confronted by such misfortune. This act was well documented by the journalists and photographers who were right behind him, a fact that had escaped President Leone's mind in that moment. In Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean region, the gesture must usually be performed with the fingers tilting downward to signify the warding off of bad luck; in the same region and elsewhere, the gesture may take a different, offensive and insulting meaning if it is performed with fingers upward or if directed aggressively towards someone in a swiveling motion (see section below).
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