Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 06:43:00 EST From: "Dennis.Preston" <22709MGR[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSU.BITNET> Subject: Adam's off ox My earliest attestation of not knowing something from an off-ox is, in fact, n ot to Adam's.It is from George W. Harris' Sut Lovingood; Yarns Spun by a Nat'ral Born Durn'd Fool, etc..., New York, 1867, cited in American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases 1820-1880, A. Taylor and B.J. Whiting, Belknap Press, Harvard, 1958, p. 273 'I didn;t know hit from Beltashazur's off ox.' Dennis Preston 22709mgr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msu.bitnet