# "I'm down with that": history of the expression? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924 "2013-12-21T23:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/1 "2013-12-21T23:57:55Z")
My wife, God bless her innocent soul, got an email one sentence reply, “I’m down with that,” and asked me if that meant the sender agreed with her proposal or not. What’ shtetl history of that expression? ETA: I wrote “what’s the history…” and must have stumbled, so that’ sweat Apple autocorrect came up with. Left for the record. ETA2: I thought I wrote “that’s what Apple’s autocorrect came up with” and that’s what Apple’s autocorrect came up with. Left for the record. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/2 "2013-12-22T00:43:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ETA: I wrote “what’s the history…” and must have stumbled, so that’ sweat Apple autocorrect came up with. > > Left for the record. Really? “Shtetl” is a word? _checks Wiktionary_ Well…I’ll be damned. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/3 "2013-12-22T01:01:42Z")
Watch _Fiddler on the Roof_ to know about shtetls. 🙂 Personally, I like the term “shtetl history” to mean the derivation of an idiom. In the future when people wonder where the phrase comes from, we’ll know. Here’s an interesting link: [What's the origin of "I'm down with it"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/71491/whats-the-origin-of-im-down-with-it) Seems the earliest usage comes from 1930s Jazz era. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/4 "2013-12-22T02:56:58Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Watch _Fiddler on the Roof_ to know about shtetls. 🙂 > > Personally, I like the term “shtetl history” to mean the derivation of an idiom. In the future when people wonder where the phrase comes from, we’ll know. > Here’s an interesting link: [What's the origin of "I'm down with it"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/71491/whats-the-origin-of-im-down-with-it) > > Seems the earliest usage comes from 1930s Jazz era. Personally, I like the term “shtetl history” to mean the derivation of an idiom. In the future when people wonder where the phrase comes from, we’ll know. 😃 Also, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/5 "2013-12-22T02:58:28Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Really? “Shtetl” is a word? _checks Wiktionary_ Well…I’ll be damned. Nice username/post combo, for both parts of post. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/6 "2013-12-23T07:34:46Z")
22.V.22 slang. Aware, ‘wide-awake.’ (See also 27 a.) 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Down, sometimes synonymous with awake, as when the party you are about to rob, sees or suspects your intention, it is then said that the cove is down. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 285 He supposed he was down (had knowledge of it). 1817 Ibid. L. 201 Down as a nail. 1850 Smedley Frank Fairl. iv. (Farmer) You’re down to every move, I see, as usual. VI.VI With ellipsis of a verb: so that down itself functions for the verbal phrase. (But uninflected, and therefore used only for imperative and infinitive after auxiliary verbs. Hence down v.2) 27.VII.27 down on. a.VII.27.a to be down on (upon): to be aware of, to understand, to be ‘up to’. slang. See 22. 1793 J. Pearson Polit. Dict., Egad, the Baronet was down upon it. 1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVII. 76 Was down upon him, and clearly up to his gossip. 1865 G. Berkeley Life, etc. II. 103 (Farmer) I said‥‘I’m down on it all: the monkey never bit your dog.’ OED, in case you were wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/7 "2013-12-23T16:21:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > My wife, God bless her innocent soul, got an email one sentence reply, “I’m down with that,” and asked me if that meant the sender agreed with her proposal or not. > > What’ shtetl history of that expression? I started seeing it frequently in conversations with college students about 8 years ago. It lead to a number of misunderstandings because I assumed that to be “down with” was meant as the opposite of being “up for.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-down-with-that-history-of-the-expression/676924/8 "2013-12-24T02:35:00Z")
I never heard it before the early 1990s.