"Knock, Knock" Not in OED

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Oct 5 16:10:11 UTC 2013


1936 _Oakland Tribune_ (July 29) 19: Evidently the anti-New Deal Democrats
are also playing that new game:

"Knock! Knock!"

"Who's there?"

"Al!."

"Al, who?"

"Al be seeing you in Detroit!"

Cf. the Porter in Macbeth.

JL


On Sat, Oct 5, 2013 at 8:38 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "Knock, Knock" Not in OED
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't see the expression "knock knock" in OED, either in the phrase
> "knoc=
> k knock joke" or in the joke-introducing formula "Knock, knock who's
> there.=
> "
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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