# Origins: What is this '\_\_\_' of which you speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384 "2005-03-07T16:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/1 "2005-03-07T16:45:07Z")
It’s a catchphrase usually used humorously to (pretend to) distance one’s self from having even passing familiarity with something. “OK, it’s an hour and a half before we have to head over to the shareholder’s conference, so if you want to hang out in the cafe and drink a beer and play hearts, go ahead, but keep an eye on the clock.” “What is this ‘clock’ of which you speak?” [spoken slowly, as if English were 2nd language] Is there a single origin, a movie or a play, which was the source of this? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/2 "2005-03-07T17:15:45Z")
“Please, what is this, this\* Junior\*?” “That’s his name, Henry Jones Jr.” “I like Indiana!” “We named the dog Indiana” “The _dog_? You are named after the _dog_?” Not quite the same as what you were asking about, but similar. And I don’t know where it comes from either. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/3 "2005-03-07T17:27:09Z")
“The Prisoner” in _Star Trek: The Final Frontier_ says something like “What is this star ship of which you speak?” Well, something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/4 "2005-03-07T17:37:30Z")
Isn’t it Slartibartfast from _The Hitchhiker’s Guide_? “It is sometimes difficult to follow your mode of speech, Earthman. I know little of these ‘early sixties sitcoms’ of which you speak.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/5 "2005-03-07T17:43:07Z")
It sounds like a line from a B-science-fiction movie from the '50s. An alien would not know about something We Humans (I capitalised that because the aliens would always name themselves: ‘We Brainians are a most unmerciful race.’) take for granted. For example, a Benevolent Alien might meat an Earth Girl. EG says, ‘Why don’t you give me a kiss?’ The BA, having come from a highly intellectual, ordered society, would know nothing of it. ‘What is this _kiss_, of which you speak?’ I think it’s a device used in those films to indicate that even though the alien race might be more technologically advanced, they have lost the simple things that make _us_ human. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/6 "2005-03-07T17:48:01Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > For example, a Benevolent Alien might **meat** an Earth Girl. :smack: Talk about a Freudian slip! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/7 "2005-03-07T19:35:14Z")
To me the archetype is – What is this strange thing you humans call “love”? I can’t remember where it comes from, but I’m sure it has been around for a while, since the 30s or 40s, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/8 "2005-03-07T19:55:42Z")
Is my memory faulty, or did Yul Brynner make liberal use of this line in _The King and I_? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/9 "2005-03-07T20:07:24Z")
Almost certainly not the origin of what you’re looking for, but it _is_ from a 1950’s science fiction film: Hero: We were attacked by the mutants outside. Future Underground Dweller: Mutants? Other FUD: It is from Latin, a very old language. It means “the changed ones” Still Another FUD: Changed ones indeed… **World Without End** (1956) – [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049964/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049964/) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/10 "2005-03-07T20:15:57Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Is my memory faulty, or did Yul Brynner make liberal use of this line in _The King and I_? Never mind … having a hard time finding backup. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/11 "2005-03-07T20:24:53Z")
There is an instance of its usage in the English translation version of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s _The Little Prince_, originally published in 1943 (in French - I don’t know when the first English translation was published): > [@Chapter 3](#): > > [http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/chapter3.html](http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/chapter3.html) > > “My little man, where do you come from? What is this ‘where I live,’ of which you speak? Where do you want to take your sheep?” I would not be the least suprised that a line from as universally popular and beloved a book as that, has found its way into modern vernacular. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/12 "2005-03-07T21:23:34Z")
Sloooooohohohow down there with your “universals” and “beloveds,” Earthling. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/13 "2005-03-07T21:59:03Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > To me the archetype is – > > What is this strange thing you humans call “love”? > > I can’t remember where it comes from, but I’m sure it has been around for a while, since the 30s or 40s, perhaps. No, NO! “What is this thing called, love?” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/14 "2005-03-07T22:04:07Z")
Hey hey, slow down. I’m a scientist, and that was even too fast for me! ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/15 "2005-03-07T22:44:20Z")
I often use the phrase, “what means this word, ‘\_\_\_\_\_’?” but I didn’t get it from any known pop culture source, but rather from my great-grandmother, who spoke English pretty well, but not REALLY well. When I say it, it’s usually, “Sleep? What means this word, ‘sleep’?” ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/16 "2005-03-08T02:45:25Z")
Cole Porter song from 1929, _What Is This Thing Called Love?_ Based on the rhythms of a chant Porter claims to have heard in Marrakesh. ---
**Author:** ![klintypooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3da27b/32.png) [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-what-is-this-___-of-which-you-speak/293384/17 "2005-03-08T03:03:59Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Never mind … having a hard time finding backup. It’s been a while but isn’t it when Anna is telling him about snow? One of my all time fave movies, and I’m only 20, my nan always used to make me watch it.