When I was a kid, we had this funny little tradition with our family car. We made sure that at all

times there was a piece of wood inside the vehicle, like an actual stick that we just picked up

off the ground and kept in the cup holder. That stick was for luck. We're running late, but traffic looks good. Knock on wood. Looks like we might get there right on time. Knock on wood. We were running late a lot. And we would actually pick up the steak from the cup holder and give it a little knock. I have always wondered where this phrase came from, but never bothered to figure it

out, until we got a note from a listener, asking us about it. So today, the origin of knock on wood,

and some of the psychology behind superstitious behaviors, like keeping a stick in your car.

Plus, the answer to another listener question, where did the word tsunami come from?

I'm Johanna Mayer, and this is Diction Dash, where I try and usually fail to guess the true

meaning or origin of a word.

Kevin McLean is a freelance producer based in Davis, California.

Hey, Kevin.

Hey, how's it going?

I can hardly wait to hear where this phrase that I've used three million times comes from.

Yeah, yeah, well, it is a very common superstition. According to Oxford

English Dictionary, knock on wood means to knock on something made of wood, as you said, as a

superstitious act to ward off misfortune or bad luck. And actually, in the UK, they say touchwood.

Have you heard that before? I have heard that, yeah. And I think in Spanish,

they say Tokomadera, like, which means touchwood. Yeah. So, I mean, it is a super common superstition

spanning many cultures and languages. And actually, while I was looking it up, I kind of dove

into some of the psychology literature behind superstitious

behavior. Ooh, I will definitely ask you more about that in a second. But first, I have to know. Do you

have any superstitions, Kevin? Um, I don't think I have anything that is particularly superstitious, though I am sort of a creature of habit.

So it's like when I do things that are different, I notice.

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