Date:  Tue, 8 Mar 1994 14:06:40 EST

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Adam's off ox



Sorry; I should have checked DARE first. For some reason, I thought the entry

would be coming out under O, instead of being already out under A. And sure

enough, a typically great entry, complete with variants, many of them

wonderfully folk-etymological: Adam's old ox, old fox, all fox [!]; Madam's

off-ox [as in Madam, I'm Adam?]; Bettashazur's/Gabe's/devil's off-ox; Adam's

off-bull/brother/hat(band)/pet monkey/house cat.

  The earliest citation is 1894: He didn't know me from Adam's off ox. The

others are in the same vein (I wouldn't know him from Adam's all fox, etc.).

The principal expression is "chiefly west of the Appalachians", the house cat

variant largely found in the South Atlantic and Gulf states, where off oxen

are presumably rare. (Neither is attested in the Northeast.)

  Then there are the symptoms of decreasing transparency: slow/poor/stubborn

as Adam's off ox. Best citation, from Yankee magazine a few years back:



  "One of my mother's favorite expressions was, 'He doesn't know any more

than Adam's off-ox.' Never could figure out what it was all about."



What I still don't know is whether my speculation is right: if I don't know

him from Adam's off ox, he's even farther from my ability to

identify/recognize him than if I (just) don't know him from Adam. And I'm

still not sure why it's the off, or farther, ox--if that's the one that's

harder to make out or recognize by virtue of being farther away,

you'd think it was the closer one (the on ox?) that would figure in the

collocation.



Larry