I guess it's older than I thought, which makes me even more curious

[lola_granola]

Does anybody know anything about this phrase know from, which is used to mean know about? For example, I now sometimes hear (or, more often, read) someone say something like, "I don't know from basketball," or "He doesn't know from science" when they mean, "I don't know about basketball," or "He doesn't know about science." (Have I already posted

Comments

[anonymous]

Try googling "he don't know from"... found one source says it's the translation a Yiddish expression. It goes back at least to the 40s, according to the OED, and one site listing it as WW2 Civilian slang.

[ext_111646]

It's very Yiddish. I've heard it a bunch, but my mom's from NYC so I've heard it a bunch. Just picture a bunch of old bubbies sitting around kvetching and you'd be sure to hear that phrasing a bunch. Bobby Hill uses it a bunch on King of the Hill because he wants nothing more than to be a Jewish comedian.

[lola_granola]

Thanks. I guess that explains why I hear it more often in Florida.

Sounds Incorrect

[yanigisawa]

I've never heard this phrase before. It sounds like a slang, or colloquialism. In any event, it sounds like an incorrect usage of the word "from." I'd say that it just got imported when a non-native English speaker was trying to use "about" and didn't understand the proper context sensitivity of the terms.

[ext_130630]

I forgot about that expression! It's not as frightening, though, as the Canadian "I'm done X," used to say you've finished a task... as in "I'm done the book," or "I'm finished my homework," or "are you finished your Christmas shopping?"

~Andrew

[lola_granola]

Huh. I've never heard that one, and I think I would even have a fairly hard time understanding what the person meant.

[lola_granola]

That is, actually a regionalism. It's generally accepted in certain areas of the Midland but not in the North or South.