# "to know from" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348 "2003-01-03T02:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jitterbug\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@Jitterbug\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jitterbug_Boy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/1 "2003-01-03T02:26:54Z")
I’m wondering about the origin of the phrase “to know from X”, meaning to have knowledge about X. The earliest instance I’ve seen of it is in the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy” (1980), where Michael Thys’ character says “he don’t know from doors” about the bushman. Is it borrowed into English from some other language, like the way “already” in “hurry up already” is borrowed from Yiddish? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/2 "2003-01-03T03:39:35Z")
I don’t know about that _particular_ construction, but the phrase “not know him from Adam” dates to at least the late eighteenth century in both Britain and the U.S. as noted in these similar explanations of “Adam’s off ox”: [The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/111097.html#offox) [A Google cached page from Quinion.com](http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:RX-p62Pkr4YC:www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-ada1.htm+%22know+him+from+adam%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) It does not seem to me to be a great stretch to go from “not know from Adam” (meaning to not know a particular person) to “not know from X” (meaning to have no knowledge of X). That, of course, does not preclude another source; I simply am unaware of one. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/3 "2003-01-03T03:48:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jitterbug Boy \* > \*\*I’m wondering about the origin of the phrase “to know from X”, meaning to have knowledge about X. The earliest instance I’ve seen of it is in the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy” (1980), where Michael Thys’ character says “he don’t know from doors” about the bushman. Is it borrowed into English from some other language, like the way “already” in “hurry up already” is borrowed from Yiddish? > > Anyone? \*\* Don’t have an online cite handy, but I’m pretty sure you hit on it in your last sentence: it’s a translation of a Yiddishism. The German preposition _von_ means both “from” and “of” (hence its use in names of the nobility where it refers to the prinicipality: “Manfred von Richthofen” means “Manfred from Richthofen” or “Manfred of Richthofen”). The German/Yiddish phrase “wissen von” means “to know of”; on-the-fly translation into English often ended up with “from” rather than “of”, particularly since the sound was closer to the original phrase. [“_Du zol nicht vissen frum tsores_”](http://members.tripod.com/talk_jewish/id19.htm), means “You should never know of sorrow”, but you can see how the mistranslation would occur. I remember wondering about that and a couple of other bits of Yiddish diction and syntax in the character’s lines in the movie; don’t know that there is a logical explanation, but it makes the character even more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Jitterbug\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@Jitterbug\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jitterbug_Boy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/4 "2003-01-03T23:25:39Z")
Thank you; that’s exactly what I was looking for! It’s a Yiddishism. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/5 "2003-01-04T01:27:44Z")
Standard German uses the same word, _von_, in some contexts, to mean either “of” or “from”. One can certainly see how this would carry into Yiddish, which is very close to German, and then into mainstream American English like so many other Yiddishisms. Not knowing someone from Adam is a completely different construct. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/6 "2003-01-04T05:09:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > \*\*Not knowing someone from Adam is a completely different construct. \*\* Not to mention “from Shinola”. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-know-from/146348/7 "2003-01-04T13:58:01Z")
“I don’t know Adam from Shinola?” Huh?