Over on Twitter, notes that the adjectival phrase knock-on appears twice in the current issue of New Scientist (British) and wonders if it’s “a recent BrE innovation? Neither?” My answer: fairly recent and, until quite recently, almost exclusively British English.

The “quite recently” means that for this blog’s purposes, it’s an on-the-radar NOOB. The OED calls the phrase “chiefly” British and defines it as “Being a secondary or indirect consequence of another action, occurrence, or event; knock-on effect n.

Knock On Effect Definition

Well done, Peter for that clip. Unmistakably the old Arms Park in Cardiff; hallowed ground in this part of the world where Rugby is taken very seriously.

Wales are due for another test match with the All Blacks tomorrow in the new Millennium Stadium, a stone’s throw (or drop kick) from the Arms Park where that wonderful full length run took place almost forty years ago. A ‘knock on’ in Rugby is the illegal, (often unintended), forward passage of the ball in play, typically resulting from a fumble when passing the ball or loosing grip. It results in a scrum with the opposition given the ball to ‘put in’. It usually signifies a reversal of the flow of the game.

The ‘knock-on’ effect.