"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
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> 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
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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