"Who knew?"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Go know!"?

Forerunner of "Go figure!" ?

JL

On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Who knew?"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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