origin of the expression "trying to catch a falling knife"?

Question

What is the origin of the expression "trying to catch a falling knife"? I have just read it and I wonder how it came up to be a common expression.

Answer 1

I'm not sure how common it is. (Sorry to profess ignorance, but I don't recall hearing it before).

When I Googled the phrase, I noticed almost all the links revolved around investing or finances. (Ah! No wonder a poor man like me hasn't heard it before...)

I thought this website explained it very well:

A falling knife security can rebound, or it can lose all of its value. As the phrase suggests, buying into a market with a lot of downward momentum can be quite dangerous. If timed perfectly, a buy at the bottom of a long downtrend can be rewarding - both financially and emotionally - but the risks run extremely high.

This site listed several investing cliches, including the falling knife expression, where it said:

"Never try and catch a falling knife. Wait for it to hit the ground then pick it up. The same applies to falling stocks."

A falling knife can land handle-side down (in which case it bounces), or blade-side down (in which case it sticks into the ground). If you're trying to catch the knife, and you catch the wrong end, you get hurt. Seems to be an apt metaphor.

The cliche is apparently well-used in investing circles. There's even a book with that title .

That said, I have no idea if its origins can be traced. It might just be one of those things that got uttered in the pit, and stuck.

Answer 2

The metaphoric usage shot to prominence in financial circles in the late 80s - here's a typical citation from the financial periodical The Bulletin, 1987

The line of the week among Manhattan traders seemed to say it all: "It was like trying to catch a falling knife."

Prior to that, virtually every occurrence is simply literal advice to cooks, etc. One exception I did come across was in Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston's novel The Gay Dombeys (1919)

What's that saying? 'Never catch a falling knife or save a falling friend!'

...but I don't think one should necessarily assume this means there ever was such a saying - it's probably just Johnston exercising artistic license.

Answer 3

The earliest Google Books match for the expression "Never catch a falling knife" is from James Wilson, Lowland Scotch as Spoken in the Lower Strathearn District of Perthshire (1915), which includes this entry in a chapter titled "Proverbs and Sayings":

Nair kep a fawin tneif.

Never catch a falling knife.

The wording next appears (according to Google Books, and as cited in FumbleFingers's answer) in Harry Johnston, The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel (1919):

I'm only infectious now as a political and social delinquent, and if you've much regard for your own welfare you oughtn't to mix yourself up with my affairs. ... What's that saying? 'Never catch a falling knife or save a falling friend! ...'

In 1935, the expression appeared in a list of proverbs from Northern Ireland. From "Pearls from the Black North," in the [New South Wales] Catholic Press (February 7, 1935):

Ruthless cynicism marks some of the sayings I have noted [in Ulster]. "Gaze at the moon and fall into the mire." "Fly low, fly long." "Wool buyers know wool sellers." "High houses are often empty in the top storey." "Never catch a falling knife." "You'll live long after you're laughed at."

The common sense of the expression is clear from "Butcher Tries to Catch Falling Knife; Is Cut," in the Los Angeles [California] Herald (June 19, 1910):

T J. J. Casey, a butcher, who lives at 1880 East Forty-first street, learned yesterday morning at the Maier Packing company, where he works, that the best way to catch a falling knife is with any floor which is convenient at the time. Casey dropped a large knife and grabbed it on its downward flight with his right hand. At the receiving hospital several stitches were taken in two fingers of his right hand.

By World War II, promotional safety guides were citing the expression as words to live by. From Army Food and Messing: The Complete Manual of Mess Management (1943):

(6) Do not grab for a falling knife. You might miss the handle and grab the blade. The best practice is to step back out of the way so the point of the blade will not hit your legs or feet.

It thus appears that the expression "Never catch a falling knife" was in use as a folk aphorism in Scotland (at least in its "Nair kep ..." form) by 1915. Charles Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder & Fred Shapiro, The [Yale] Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012) cites both Wilson and Johnston in its entry for the phrase "Don't (try to) catch falling knife."