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Frage:
know your onions - one last question for US speakers  
von Windfall (GB), 2013-07-09, 12:54  like dislike  Spam?  
does this phrase mean anything to you? It means "know your stuff" and we use it in phrases like "it pays to know your onions" and it'd be good to get confirmation of whether it's US English only.
Antwort: 
Know your onions  #715377
von dogberry (GB), 2013-07-09, 13:12  like dislike  Spam?  
Very common in the UK. 'He knows his onions', someone who knows exactly what he is doing.
Antwort: 
Know your onions  #715382
von dogberry (GB), 2013-07-09, 13:21  like dislike  Spam?  
Sorry, Windfall. Didn't realise you were GB based.
Antwort: 
I guessed right ("know your stuff"), but it was a guess.  #715385
von MichaelK (US), 2013-07-09, 13:25  like dislike  Spam?  
Antwort: 
Quote    http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kno1.htm  #715388
von Proteus-, 2013-07-09, 13:30  like dislike  Spam?  62.46.129....
The crucial fact is that the expression isn’t British but American, first recorded in the magazine Harper’s Bazaar in March 1922. It was one of a set of such phrases, all with the sense of knowing one’s stuff, or being highly knowledgeable in a particular field, that circulated in the 1920s. Others were to know one’s oats, to know one’s oil, to know one’s apples, to know one’s eggs, and even to know one’s sweet potatoes (which appeared in a cartoon by T A Dorgan in 1928). You may notice certain similarities between the substances mentioned, most being foods and most having names that start with a vowel.
Antwort: 
Thanks everyone!  #715395
von Windfall (GB), 2013-07-09, 13:42  like dislike  Spam?  
Proteus, that is such a cool fact that although the expression has ended up UK only it originates from the US!
Chat:     
Interesting. The food phrases seem to have faded away.  #715398
von MichaelK (US), Last modified: 2013-07-09, 13:45  like dislike  Spam?  
Probably because America is no longer an agricultural nation, as it was not too long ago. Thomas Jefferson predicted that such a change would be the beginning of the end for America ("...should we involve ourselves in foreign wars and adventures...").
Antwort: 
von Windfall (GB), 2013-07-09, 13:50  like dislike  Spam?  
 #715403
"knowing your onions" has kind of lost touch with food in the UK. If anything, it makes me think of gardeners rather than farmers. It's now just one of those expressions we use without thinking about its origin. I can say the same for "to be in the right ballpark" and "to have had a good innings" - it was a revelation when someone told me they were sports metaphors. I had only known their figurative/metaphorical use and it hadn't occurred to me they could also have literal, sports-related meanings, as I very rarely converse about sport, so hadn't heard them (for instance I only learnt what a peloton is last week, despite the Tour de France having been on TV in the same room as me many a time)

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