this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2026
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[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

As someone who grew up down south in the UK, it's "knock down ginger"

I have no idea who ginger is and what they have to do with prank knocking

[–] socsa@piefed.social 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you rearrange some of the letters in ginger you get the hate crime version of the name from the US South.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hmm.... That didn't seem right to me, so I looked it up

The “knock, knock, ginger” is linked to a 1967 Childhood in Poetry book by John Mackay Shaw. Behold these glorious verses:

Ginger, Ginger broke a winder, Hit the winda—crack! The baker came out to give ‘im a clout, And landed on his back.

However, we’ve also seen the game called knock down ginger.

This may actually be more accurate, as “knock down” is a term dating to the late 18th century. It refers to knocking on a door by pulling the door knock striker.

Plus, ginger was a common term then as it meant to “ginger up” (move smartly). So, knock the door, leg it in timely fashion.

https://professionalmoron.com/2022/04/18/history-of-knock-knock-ginger/

That feels a bit more like it to me, though surprised it's not even a century old, I figured it was Victorian

[–] socsa@piefed.social 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah a poem about whipping gingers on the back. From 1967.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Redheads still have it rough, but it's gotten a lot better over the years. In the US we still use "redheaded stepchild" to mean someone or something clearly unwanted and mistreated. Especially in the form of "to beat like a redheaded stepchild"

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Uh... Who is going to tell him?

[–] beanson@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Also from southern UK and we called it knock down ginger. Looked it up and found this:

https://idiomorigins.org/origin/knock-down-ginger

Where ginger is to move "gingerly" i.e. cautiously or carefully. Can't comment on how valid that is but that website says the term has been in use since the 19th century.

[–] MajesticTechie@feddit.uk 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We called it "Knock a Door Ginger". Like you, never understood the Ginger significance

[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 2 weeks ago

Likely some casual irish racism in a similar vein to the Southern US calling it n* knocking, although in my town no one ever called it that, it was ding dong ditching

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

I'm from pretty much bang centre of the UK and we called it Postman's Knock.

Do you want to know why? Well I've no fucking idea. My brother called it that so I called it that.