# knocked up **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222 "2006-01-16T15:15:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lori\_Everhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8c91f0/32.png) [@Lori\_Everhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lori_Everhart)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/1 "2006-01-16T15:15:48Z")
Where did the term knocked up come from? I have done some searching, but alas, no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/2 "2006-01-16T15:20:39Z")
Seems straight forward enough. You KNOCK on someone’s bedroom door to wake them UP. Sort of like WAKING someone up, only by knocking. I’ve only ever heard Brits use it, as in, “Brilliant! You sleep it off here tonight, and I’ll stop by your house on my way to Cheshire and knock your wife up so she can meet you at church tomorrow.” Glad to be of service. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/3 "2006-01-16T15:42:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Eric Partridge’s big reference book “A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Day” labels “knocked up,” with the meaning of pregnant, as “low” and says it comes from the following sense of “knock”: “(Of a man) to have sexual intercourse (with): low colloquial: late C. 16-20.” In another entry, “knocking” (obsolete) is defined as sexual intercourse without being limited to the male partner’s point of view. This book identifies “knocked up” as belonging to the 19th and 20th centuries and as mostly U.S. So the expression is less classy than standard English but stops short of being vulgar slang… [http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin\_board/13/messages/332.html](http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/332.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/4 "2006-01-16T16:05:07Z")
\*\*Inigo’s \*\* post, which I am sure is tongue in cheek, illustrates the dangers of different slang usages in the UK and the US. Similarly, when I was living in New Zealand, I was quite startled when the office secretary, a respectable middle-aged woman, asked me if I needed some rubbers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/5 "2006-01-16T16:37:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > \*\*Inigo’s \*\* post, which I am sure is tongue in cheek… Dare you suggest I would post jape as the initial response to a virginal GQ? You _wound_ me! It hurts me in my _heart!_ I think I’ll _cry_. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/6 "2006-01-16T16:39:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Inigo’s post, which I am sure is tongue in cheek, illustrates the dangers of different slang usages in the UK and the US. No kidding, and the same goes for Australia. I was pretty surprised one day to hear someone mention that their border collie was knocked up (tired out) after a hard day’s work herding sheep. On a related note, a friend of mine was startled when a colleague’s wife said to him, “Oh, you’ve come straight from the airport after that long flight? You must be buggered.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/7 "2006-01-16T18:14:07Z")
According to the OED, “knock” meant “to have sex with” as far back at 1598. It later meant “to become pregnant” from the phrase “to knock a child out” or “to knock an apple out.” “Knock up” didn’t mean “make pregnant” until 1813 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/8 "2006-01-16T19:37:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > \*\*Inigo’s \*\* post, which I am sure is tongue in cheek, illustrates the dangers of different slang usages in the UK and the US. Similarly, when I was living in New Zealand, I was quite startled when the office secretary, a respectable middle-aged woman, asked me if I needed some rubbers. 🙂 Maybe it’s just a regional variation, but until I was an adult I never heard any other term but rubbers for the things you put on over your shoes when it’s raining. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/9 "2006-01-16T19:42:17Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Maybe it’s just a regional variation, but until I was an adult I never heard any other term but rubbers for the things you put on over your shoes when it’s raining. Now it has three meanings. I’d forgotten about the shoe-kind, even though they’re really handy. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/10 "2006-01-16T19:53:44Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Maybe it’s just a regional variation, but until I was an adult I never heard any other term but rubbers for the things you put on over your shoes when it’s raining. Yes, when I was a kid that was the most usual use of the term. But after becoming an adult I hadn’t heard it used much except for the kind of rubber you wear somewhere else. But what my friend in NZ was referring to was neither of these, but erasers. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/11 "2006-01-16T20:36:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Yes, when I was a kid that was the most usual use of the term. But after becoming an adult I hadn’t heard it used much except for the kind of rubber you wear somewhere else. > > But what my friend in NZ was referring to was neither of these, but erasers. Funny. I just got that after **Speaker for the Dead** talked about _three_ meanings. And I know the British usage, too. Oh well. Can I just say that I’m sick and was up half the night? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/12 "2006-01-16T20:38:25Z")
Hmmm, I can now think of five meanings for ‘rubber’. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/13 "2006-01-16T20:39:42Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > was up half the night? Playing [Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_bridge)? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/14 "2006-01-16T21:32:21Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Maybe it’s just a regional variation, but until I was an adult I never heard any other term but rubbers for the things you put on over your shoes when it’s raining. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knocked-up/340222/15 "2006-01-16T22:14:19Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > But what my friend in NZ was referring to was neither of these, but erasers. In Australia too. Every morning in primary school Sister would say “now children, get out your pencils and rubbers.”