Nelson

When I was writing a post on David Shepherd, I mentioned him doing a hop everytime the batting team scores a Nelson… It would be interesting to find out the origin of Nelson.

According to BBC where Shepherd was a regular writer…

It harks back to when I was kid playing village cricket down in Devon and we had an unlucky number – 111. We call it The Nelson, which you would also get with other multiples like 222 and 333. We found that the only way to counteract something bad happening on a Nelson number was to get your feet off the ground. You could just lift your feet off the pavilion floor if you weren’t in the middle, but if I was on the field of play I would just jump or hop.

The term was invented in the belief that Lord Nelson was unlucky enough to have had only one eye, one arm and one leg. Nelson wasn’t quite this unfortunate as he actually had two legs, but the cricket term has survived all attempts by historians to correct it. And hence the word Nelson.

Touchwood

Don’t really know from where I had caught on this word, but I use “touchwood” quite often. Think, its time I know the origin of the usage of Touch Wood

‘Touch wood’ or ‘knock on wood’ is a popular saying intended to reverse any bad luck that might come our way, especially in regard to something we’ve just done or said. The expression is also usually used in the hope that a good thing will continue to occur after it has been acknowledged.

Knocking on wood, in fact, is very common belief in many cultures. As a good omen, people will often touch wood at the start of a day or at the beginning of a special event. It is a strongly engrained superstition and folks will often go to great lengths to find something wood to ‘knock on’ fearing that if they don’t touch wood their luck will surely run out.

Some believe it has to do with knocking on the wooden cross. Another explanation for this practice is the pagan belief that spirits (dryads) lived in trees. By knocking on the wood of a tree while making some sort of a bold statement, the speaker could prevent the spirit from hearing him and stop the spirit from interfering.

However, there is no evidence for either theory, and the superstitions have not been traced beyond children’s games of tag of the early nineteenth century.