where it's been

9.8

You do not know if something was in dirty places before you got it

idiom

Informal

: donde ha estado

I wouldn't touch that sandwich; you don't know where it's been.

Examples

I don't trust that meat; I wonder where it's been.
When he handed me the old book, I wondered where it's been all these years.
She won't buy used phones because she's unsure where it's been.
Do you really want to eat that? Who knows where it's been!
I wouldn't touch that sandwich; you don't know where it's been.
She won't buy used phones because she's unsure where it's been.
Do you really want to eat that? Who knows where it's been!

Surface Forms

where it's been main

Morphology

where + it's + be

The phrase is a literal composition of 'where' + 'it has been' and directly denotes the places or history of something, so a B1 learner who knows 'where', 'it' and the verb 'be/been' can derive the basic meaning. The implied negative or unsanitary connotation comes from pragmatic inference in context rather than an unpredictable idiomatic meaning, so the expression is compositionally transparent.

Etymology

The phrase where it's been comes from the simple image of not knowing the places something has been. Because you might imagine it was in dirty pockets or on the floor, people use it to warn that the item has an 'unknown history' or might be 'dirty'.