>>Does this
"touch wood" mean "I hope we're lucky"? If it does, it's
funny to think why some languages have "touch iron" and others
"wood". I had only heard this "wood" thing in Spanish.
Anybody knows about it? (maybe some kind of Roman stuff?)
>One touches wood to ward off bad luck,
or more specifically to prevent the fulfilment of something one has just said:
"I've never been to hospital -- touch wood!" (or "knock on
wood!" in American English) -- in this case, cancelling an untimely
boast lest the gods should make sure that you _do_ go to hospital. In
Poland (and I think in Holland too) people often actually accompany
the words with a knock on the (preferably unpainted) underside of a table
top. Piotr
People here say in the same situations
"hout vasthouden" [ha:t vastha:v&] and don't knock but hold the
table or so (yes, unpainted wood). I had never heard the expression until I
moved to where I live now where it's very frequent (Putte, only 20 km from where
I used to live, Herentals) .
Marc