# Phrases you're surprised people aren't familiar with **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 20, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974 "2011-09-20T18:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Eggerhaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@Eggerhaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eggerhaus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/201 "2011-10-08T00:43:29Z")
My wife once said to me, when someone criticized her, “She doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox!” Left me with a WTF moment. Apparently it means someone you don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/202 "2011-10-08T01:02:35Z")
> [@Eggerhaus](#): > > My wife once said to me, when someone criticized her, “She doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox!” Left me with a WTF moment. > > Apparently it means someone you don’t know. I’ve always heard it as “Doesn’t know me from Adam.” The “off ox” part would be a WTF moment for me, too. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/203 "2011-10-08T01:04:09Z")
> [@Eggerhaus](#): > > My wife once said to me, when someone criticized her, “She doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox!” Left me with a WTF moment. > > Apparently it means someone you don’t know. My grandmother used to say that. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/204 "2011-10-08T19:30:31Z")
**phouka** , thanks for that explanation. I had no idea. Not knowing the origin of the phrase, I’m sure, my sister once used that phrase toward a friend of mine, and only later realized that my friend was quite literally, a red-headed stepchild. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/205 "2011-10-08T23:25:07Z")
Adam’s off ox… I don’t know if the Bible speaks of Adam using draft animals, but here goes. “Doesn’t know me from Adam” isn’t hard to figure out. Nobody now alive now could have known Adam. The other part comes from using a pair of oxen or horses to pull a cart or plow. In a pair, one of the beasts is more reliable to obey commands. The other one is the “off” ox or horse. In movies or ads, it’s odd how often I see a pair of horses clearly pulling against each other. That’s not a good pair. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/206 "2011-10-09T00:32:20Z")
“I think” “I thought” “I said” All I hear now is “I’m like” ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/207 "2011-10-09T22:50:56Z")
Another phrase I’ve used that has gotten me confused looks: “Do it by the numbers.” It’s my mantra when the depression gets bad. I am stinky and wrapped up in bedsheets. There are a thousand things that need doing, but I can’t be arsed to do any of them, because I am a rancid, worthless human being, and even if I did do them, I would fuck them up. There is no happiness in a task well done, because I’m convinced I can’t do any task well. So I remind myself, “do it by the numbers”. What that means is, whatever the checklist is, I will do it. Whether I think it’s stupid or not. I’ll do it. Whether I’m convinced I’m going to fuck it up, I’ll do it. There is a Platonic ideal of a checklist for whatever the day is, and I’m going to do it by the Og-damned numbers. Trying to share this with others, especially students who think the assignment is stupid and pointless (and it may well be, but I’m required by state law, district policy, or jack ass principal to do it), I will agree with them and still say “do it by the numbers”. And then I end up explaining what it means, and half the time, they don’t get me. I think I picked it up from Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/208 "2011-10-09T22:53:06Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > **phouka** , thanks for that explanation. I had no idea. > > Not knowing the origin of the phrase, I’m sure, my sister once used that phrase toward a friend of mine, and only later realized that my friend was quite literally, a red-headed stepchild. Oops. It’s actually been asked a couple of times in General Questions. I don’t know if my dad’s explanation is the etymologically accurate one, but it’s the context _he_ learned it in when he grew up in an extremely racist culture, so I take him at his word. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/209 "2011-10-10T09:40:15Z")
Today one of my coworkers used the line _cuando Napoleón era cadete_, when Bonaparte was a cadet (so, a long time ago; similar lines include _cuando Jesús se perdió y fue hallado en el Templo_, “when Jesus got lost and found at the Temple” or _en el año de la polka_, “in the year in which polkas first got into fashion”). Another coworker went “buh?”; during the explanations, we discovered that he couldn’t even place Bonaparte’s century… We’re in Madrid, where May 2nd is a holiday in commemoration of the uprising against the French; the ignorant coworker is from Madrid and a very recent college graduate. As another colleague pointed out “well, he is young enough to have gotten to college in the age of ‘you can’t flunk a student for not doing a thing as it may traumatize them’ - man, I’m suddenly feeling old!” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/210 "2011-10-10T12:18:34Z")
Being a voracious reader, I sometimes use 19th century expressions, which nobody knows the meaning of. I once referred to a busy food stand as “doing a lnd office business”-my friend was totally puzzled. then I realized that this expression goes back to the Oklahoma Land Rush-hardly a modern turn of speech. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/211 "2011-10-10T12:38:57Z")
> [@YoSaffBridge](#): > > I’ve always heard it as “Doesn’t know me from Adam.” The “off ox” part would be a WTF moment for me, too. I’ve always said, “Doesn’t know me from a bag of popcorn.” But I have no idea where I learned it. Getting back to the swinging cats, I’ve always vaguely thought that live cats were related to space - “my new office isn’t big enough to swing a cat in” - and dead cats were related to objects - “you can’t swing a dead cat in here without hitting (blank)”. For me they’re two separate sayings. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/212 "2011-10-10T13:00:34Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Today one of my coworkers used the line _cuando Napoleón era cadete_, when Bonaparte was a cadet (so, a long time ago; similar lines include _cuando Jesús se perdió y fue hallado en el Templo_, “when Jesus got lost and found at the Temple” or _en el año de la polka_, “in the year in which polkas first got into fashion”). Another coworker went “buh?”; during the explanations, we discovered that he couldn’t even place Bonaparte’s century… In the U.S., there are a couple of expressions like that: “since Hector was a pup” and “in donkeys’ years.” I don’t know that I’ve ever heard them said, but I’ve read them in fiction, from Stephen King, among others. No idea who Hector was, or why it’s donkeys’ years rather than, say, cows’ years. ---
**Author:** ![Sandra\_Battye](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sandra_battye/32/552_2.png) [@Sandra\_Battye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandra_Battye)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/213 "2011-10-10T15:52:58Z")
I forget why, but I used the phase “but a hedgehog can’t be buggered at all” and none of my friends had ever heard of “buggered”. I guess I read too much British fiction… ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/214 "2011-10-10T16:46:29Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I was talking to a young person and used the phrase “wrong side of the blanket.” Totally blank stare. > > It’s odd that I would use it because I hate euphanisms, and I hate the whole idea that one’s parentage can be illegitimate or " **wong."** Racist.😛 Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/215 "2011-10-10T16:49:54Z")
> [@YoSaffBridge](#): > > I’ve always heard it as “Doesn’t know me from Adam.” The “off ox” part would be a WTF moment for me, too. Yeah, I’d be inclined to think you were having a stroke if you said that to me… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/216 "2011-10-10T16:53:08Z")
Incidentally, I have two that I love, in theory, but have never used. “Deader than Kelsey’s nuts” to mean, well, dead, and “Serious as a prolapse” to mean very damn serious. Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974.md?page=10)