"Who knew?"

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 29, 2012, at 8:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Used a lot by TV talkers to cap a light-hearted story or minor revelation.
> Ex. "So Hrothgar was actually Grendel's father. Who knew?"
>
> In other words, "Who would have thought of it or guessed?" "That's sooo
> interesting."   (Or, in older, yet more humorous idiom, "Who'd 'a' thunk
> it?")
>
> The first time I heard this phrase was as the tag line of a TV ad campaign
> in NYC for Lenders Bagels.  My guess is that it was in the early '70s, but
> it could have been a few years later.
>
As supported by your association above, "Who knew?" has always struck me as vaguely Jewish, or should I say Yinglish.  But maybe that's because it seems roughly interchangeable with "Go know".  Both are often used sarcastically or ironically, if that's a kosher use of that last adverb, meaning 'of course everyone knew' or 'duh'.

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org