RE: Re: Re: know the score

[Baker, John]

        To "know the score," as I understand the term, means to know what's really going on, the implication being that some people know this and some people don't.  That meaning is consistent with a derivation from either sports or music.  In any case, there could have been intermediate stages in the derivation of the term, so a logical affinity of the current meaning for one derivation or another is only a weak argument.

        To muddy the waters a little, here's a quote from 1937 that implies the term then was not well-known and was associated with gays:  "At least two witnesses testified that they fully understood that they were to bring only people who were "queer" or "who knew the score," the meaning of which expressions clearly appears from the evidence."  People v. Jordan, 74 P.2d 519, 524 (Cal. Ct. App. 1937).

John Baker