RE: Re: Re: know the score

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>         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).

I suppose that "know the score" here (as elsewhere) means "be hip" or "be
in the know" or "know what's going on" (in this case regarding some
clandestine arrangements or activities, apparently). I don't think its
general meaning had anything to do with being "queer"; that's just its
connection in this particular case.

E.g.: _Lincoln [Nebraska] Star_, 18 Oct. 1933: p. 11: [referring to
complaints about commercialization of college football] <<Somewhere,
sometime, there may have been a football reformer who knew the score, but
it never was my good fortune to come upon any of his writings.>>

My casual impression (not to be taken too seriously without evidence of
course) is that " the score" originally referred to the current score in a
baseball or similar game. It's true that knowing the score is trivial if
you're at the game, but most people are not at the game. "There's a guy in
my office who always knows the score" would refer to somebody who knows the
score of whatever game is currently in progress or has just ended
(presumably without his leaving the office): no great feat with an Internet
connection, but before radio a little more impressive. Of course if he
knows the up-to-date score at the game across town, he probably knows the
latest office gossip too, and where to get a drink after hours, etc., etc.

-- Doug Wilson