http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/what-does-touch-wood-mean

or

Origin

The derivation may be the association that wood and trees have with good spirits in mythology, or with the Christian cross. It used to be considered good luck to tap trees to let the wood spirits within know you were there. Traditions of this sort still persist in Ireland. See also - the darling buds of May.

The British version of the phrase - 'touch wood', predates the American 'knock on wood' and was itself preceded by a Latin version - 'absit omen', meaning 'far be that omen from us'. This dates from at least the early 17th century, when it is quoted by John Heywood in his collections of proverbs. It isn't clear when 'touch wood' began to be used as a token of good fortune but it must have been by 1850, when the academic correspondence magazine Notes and Queries published this:

There probably is some old English expression for averting evil, but it does not come to mind; "I touch wood," "Bar omen," "Bar ill-luck," seem clumsy.

'Knock on wood' is known from the early 20th century; for example, The Syracuse Herald, February 1905:

Neglecting to knock on wood may have been responsible for the weather's unseemly behaviour today.

I touched wood when I read Mitch sent one through post high.

You say that but our CHF, FF, and one of our top 3 mids, are coming off little to no PS.

Dawes has done most of the fitness-based PS, just less match practice, drills etc. Trengove had over 2 months of basic build before Xmas, not to mention the work that he would have done before official training started. As mentioned elsewhere, all would have been on the bikes, in the gym etc. etc.

It's not as if any of them have been sitting round with their legs up.

or

Origin

The derivation may be the association that wood and trees have with good spirits in mythology, or with the Christian cross. It used to be considered good luck to tap trees to let the wood spirits within know you were there. Traditions of this sort still persist in Ireland. See also - the darling buds of May.

The British version of the phrase - 'touch wood', predates the American 'knock on wood' and was itself preceded by a Latin version - 'absit omen', meaning 'far be that omen from us'. This dates from at least the early 17th century, when it is quoted by John Heywood in his collections of proverbs. It isn't clear when 'touch wood' began to be used as a token of good fortune but it must have been by 1850, when the academic correspondence magazine Notes and Queries published this:

'Knock on wood' is known from the early 20th century; for example, The Syracuse Herald, February 1905:

There probably is some old English expression for averting evil, but it does not come to mind; "I touch wood," "Bar omen," "Bar ill-luck," seem clumsy.

Neglecting to knock on wood may have been responsible for the weather's unseemly behaviour today.

Oops. Did I accidentally open up Wikipedia instead of Demonland?

Oops. Did I accidentally open up Wikipedia instead of Demonland?

I was thinking the same thing.

I must say that I came very close to having a bit of a look at the training session after attending the Melbourne Business Community breakfast yesterday but I resisted the temptation because I had a big day at work ahead of me and even a ½ hour look around would have been a bit much for me.

Neil Craig got my enthusiasm up at the breakfast with his words about how the team has been traveling over the pre season and, although he was very measured in his expectations, it's clear the only way for us is to go forward after the horrors of 2012. The guest speaker, Mick Colliss who represented Australia at the 2008 World Sudoku Championships, was hilarious with his description of how he and a few mates conned their way into representing their country in an international competition and achieved their dream of wearing the green blazer with the national crest on it - proving that if you're determined, you can achieve anything.

I was thinking of that as I drove past Gosch's Paddock and saw the boys training.