fun fact: this expression comes from the time before alarm clocks (or clocks in general), where towns had someone whose job it was to go round the town and knock on windows and doors in the morning, waking people up. Knocker-uppers.
They would also wait for the men to leave for work and then attempt to seduce the women who stayed behind. It lead to a lot of contention from the resultant pregnancies. This angered a lot of men and women who left for the new world. This is why Americans use the phase to mean something related but functionally different. I made all of that up, but thank you for citing an actual historical fact that added context to my previous comment.
fun fact: this expression comes from the time before alarm clocks (or clocks in general), where towns had someone whose job it was to go round the town and knock on windows and doors in the morning, waking people up. Knocker-uppers.
They would also wait for the men to leave for work and then attempt to seduce the women who stayed behind. It lead to a lot of contention from the resultant pregnancies. This angered a lot of men and women who left for the new world. This is why Americans use the phase to mean something related but functionally different. I made all of that up, but thank you for citing an actual historical fact that added context to my previous comment.