Entry · catalog no. 7003
knock yourself out
/ /nɒk jərˈsɛlf aʊt/ /nok-yur-SELF-owt
phrase · Harlem, New York · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
To have a thoroughly good time; to give yourself over to enjoyment without holding back. Later also used to grant someone free rein: go ahead, suit yourself.
“Food is on the table and the record player is going — knock yourself out.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem, recorded by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang as "have a good time." The phrase reads as ordinary American English today and is often assumed to be mid-century white slang, but it was set down first in a glossary of Black Harlem speech.
1942
Recorded in Hurston's Glossary of Harlem Slang
1950s
Passes into general American English
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem, New York · 1940s
Spoken by
Harlem speakers; later general American English
$KNOCKYThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady84 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1942
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
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
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See also