Entry · catalog no. 0511
knock me a kiss
/ /nɑk mi ə kɪs/ /nok-mee-uh-kiss
phrase · Harlem / national jump-blues circuit · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
Give me a kiss; plant one on me. A courting phrase from the jive era, where 'knock me a ___' framed a request as something to be handed over.
“Come here and knock me a kiss before I catch the train.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem and jazz-circuit jive of the early 1940s. Set into the record by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, who cut 'Knock Me a Kiss' in 1941 (written by Andy Razaf and Mike Jackson); it became a signature of Jordan's slang-forward jump blues. The 'knock me a ___' construction is a jive pattern — to knock someone something is to hand it over.
early 1940s
Circulates as jive courting slang
1941
Louis Jordan records 'Knock Me a Kiss'
1940s–50s
Standard of the jump-blues repertoire
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem / national jump-blues circuit · 1940s
Spoken by
Jump-blues and jive musicians and their audiences
$KNOCKMThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded85 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1941
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, 'Knock Me a Kiss' — 1941
recording · cited
■
+ Cite a sourceWritten by Andy Razaf & Mike Jackson
text
See also