why do they...
why do they...
Out of context: Reply #4
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- mpfree0
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.