Knockers
Posted by ESC on February 22, 2002
In Reply to: Knockers: When does it date from? posted by Word Camel on February 21, 2002
: : : : : : : : : : : The question came up in conversation late one night, enough said....
: : : : : : : : : : : Where does the phrase 'she got knocked up' come from?
: : : : : : : : : : Excellent question. I could have sworn blind that this was London slang, because it's in such widespread usage over here, but a little research assures me that it's US-based. I have no clue how or why it originated, though.
: : : : : : : : : : As a side note, it's an interesting little phrase, and typical of the subtle complexities of English. Those two little words have at least four quite different meanings, as follows:-
:
: : : : : : : : : a) To arouse or awaken. "Knock me up at 6:30."
: : : : :
: : : : : b) To create or cook hastily. "I knocked up bacon and eggs."
: :
: : : : : : : : c) To score at sport. "The captain knocked up a quick 30."
:
: : : : : : : : : d) To impregnate. "She got knocked up last year."
: : : : : : : : : : There are probably others. Never let it be said that English is an easy language to learn.
: : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : A little site
called LondonSlang.com asserts that the term orignates in London. It doesn't give
any other explanation but it is listed along with the term "knocking shop" for
brothel. I'm not sure whether knocking shop is used here in the US, but it seems
like it might be a clue to the phrases origin. Strangely the term 'knock' does
not seem to be used as a euphamism for sex otherwise.
: : : : : : : : : It's not inconceivable that it was orignally a British English term that migrated, then reappeared later as a uniquely American, just in the same way the spelling of the word 'fetus'is thought to be American when it was originally spelled that way in Britain too.
: : : : : : : : Additionally, the getting-pregnant usage is widespread in America, but the other usages cited (arouse, cook hastily, score at sport) are strictly UK ... unheard here.
: : : : : : : The awaken usage used to be widespread enough in the UK for us to have 'knockers up' - a profession devoted to the task of tapping on the bedroom windows of factory workers to wake them for early morning shifts. Can't be many of them left now that workers have breakfast TV to get them in the mood.
: : : : : : : There's also 'Sagger maker's bottom knockers'. Real people these, who do what you might expect - they knock the bottoms of saggers. Saggers are the containers that are used in kilns to protect the pots being fired from damage. SMBKs are the people who clean them out.
:
: : : : : Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, says "knocked up" means exhausted, pregnant. For the second
meaning, "low: C. 19-20; mainly U.S. [From] 'knock,' v. 1."
: : : : : : That
definition of "knock" is "(Of a man) to have sexual intercourse (with): low coll.:
late C. 16-20. . . . See 'nock,' n., for possible etymology."
: : : : : : "'nock.'
(As the posteriors, esp. the breech, it is [standard English . . . ] The female
pudend: low: late C. 16-18. . . . Lit., a notch."
: : : : : There's a bunch of "knock" expressions. Add a chapter on "knock-knock jokes" and you'd have a book.
: : : : : Here is a few from the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 2, H-O by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994:
: : : : : Knock - verb, to copulate. "When I was a young man, in my prime.I
knock those young gals, two at a time."
: : : : : Knock boots - to copulate.
:
: : : : Knock off a piece - to copulate.
: : : : : Knock - to excel or out
do.
: : : : : Knock -- to overcome or defeat; ruin. Put an end to an affliction.
"I gave you enough morphine to knock the pain." "I knocked my cold."
: : :
: : Knock - (U.S. military or Naval Academy) to earn a high grade; to pass a course
easily.
: : : : : Knock - to break into and rob a safe.
: : : : : Knock
- to hit with a bullet.
: : : : : Knock - to find fault with. "Don't knock
it until you've tried it."
: : : : : Knock - to inform or complain. "He's got
to make good with them to keep them from knocking."
: : : : : Knock - (Black
English) to obtain for yourself, in phrase "knock a nod," to take a nap."
:
: : : : Knock - (Jazz) to drink copiously from a bottle of liquor or to consume
food or drink. As in, "knock back" a drink.
: : : : : Knock - to earn. "Knock
seven or eight hundred then jump down."
: : : : : Knock - to embezzle. "Better
a kid who takes ten in tips and knocks a buck.than a dummy who gets half the tips
and turns in all she gets."
: : : : : Knock - to give or impart to. "Knock
me a kiss."
: : : : : Knock - to place under arrest or apprehend.
: : :
: : Knock - to discharge from employment. "They could knock you for drinking on
the job."
: : : : : Have it knocked - have something successfully under control.
"I got it knocked."
: : : : : How are you knocking them? - Greeting. "Well,
how goes it? How are you knocking them?"
: : : : : Knock a glim - to strike
a light.
: : : : : Knock cold, knock stiff, knock out - to knock someone unconscious,
knocked out cold.
: : : : : Knock cold -- render speechless. "Mary struck
the old lady dumb - 'knocked her cold,' our American cousins would say."
:
: : : : Knock dead - Similar to "knock cold." "Believe me, in my next book, I'm
going to do a wedding scene that'll knock 'em cold."
: : : : : Knock for a
loop - stunned. "She was knocked for a loop when she lost her job."
: : : :
: Knock for a row, knock silly, knock into a cocked hat, knock loose, knock seven
bells out of, knock his block off, knock his eye out, knock his socks off, knock
the spots out of (or off), knock down drag out - strike or beat up. Fight.
:
: : : : Knock-off - quitting time on the job.
: : : : : Knock off - (nautical)
to relieve someone at the end of a shift.
: : : : : Knock off - in fashion,
make a less expensive copy of a designer fashion.
: : : : : Knock off - leave.
: : : : : Knock it off - (nautical, military originally) a phrase meaning
"stop it" or "shut up."
: : : : : Knock it off - to complete or perform, to
do anything with great enjoyment.
: : : : : Knock off - to assign to a bidder
at an auction.
: : : : : Knock off - to dazzle or impress.
: : : : : Knock
over - to shoot.
: : : : : Knock over - to rob. "He knocked over the liquor
store."
: : : : : And then there's trailer park etiquette: "Don't come a knockin' when the trailer's rockin'."
: : : : And we could mention knockers, a mild vulgarism for breasts ... which makes the British music hall song "knockers up, ladies, knockers up..." particularly amusing to us Yanks.
: : : Thank you for sharing.
: : A guinea to a dollar says that "knockers" was originally UK slang. I have no proof, but it just sounds like it should be.
: I'm a little embarrassed to admit I did a word search through the text of Fanny Hill, wondering if knock might turn up. It does, though two out of three times it is to do with doors. The other time alludes to a door, though it's not really a door - and it's the wrong door actually - but either way, it isn't quite what we were looking for.
: Anyway, I'm wondering if any one knows approximately when and where it was first used this way? Maybe if we knew this, we could work out where it's from. Is it cryptically indicated in the definition from the slang dictionary? I wasn't sure about the meanings of the apprevations.
: I'm after that guinea. How many dollars to a guinea do you suppose?
I was trying to direct the discussion towards the wholesome topic of knock-knock jokes. But noooooo.
KNOCKERS - ".the vulgar KNOCKERS (1940s and 1950s)." From the "Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Editions, Hertfordshire, 1995).
" 'Bosom,' 'breast,' and 'tit' (meaning teat) all date from Old English, before the Norman invasion of 1066. Calling the complete female breasts, especially well-developed ones, 't i t s,' 'melons,' 'breastworks,' 'boobs,' 'boobies,' 'knobs,' and 'knockers' may be fairly old, but such words were seldom batted about widely until World War II, when pin-up pictures and the American male's 'breast fixation' made them a very popular part of the language." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).
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