to know someone from Adam
- idiom
- UK
:
no conocer de nada a alguien
- She claimed to be an expert, yet he doesn't know her from Adam.
Examples
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I don't know you from Adam.
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The old guy that sold them doesn't know me from Adam.
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Man, but she didn't know me from Adam
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Look, you don't know me from Adam.
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I didn't know her from Adam.
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I don't know you from Adam.
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I don't know you from Adam.
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- Come on, I know a deal's a deal and all that, but I don't know you from Adam.
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Who you gonna listen to, a doctor who don't know me from Adam, don't know you from Eve?
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I met him at the party, but honestly, I don't know him from Adam.
Synonyms
1
9.9
Not to know a person at all
To not recognize someone at all because you have never met them
How Familiar
∞
1.0
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
The negative meaning 'to not know or recognize someone at all' is not compositionally derivable from 'know' + 'someone' + 'from' + 'Adam' — the phrase relies on an idiomatic, culture-specific use of 'Adam' rather than a literal relation. Even a learner who knows the biblical Adam would not predict the expression's sense from the parts, so the phrase is idiomatic and unpredictable for B1 learners.
Etymology
Know someone from Adam may come from the idea of Adam, the first person in the Bible. Saying you do not know someone 'from Adam' gives the image that you do not know them at all, even from the very start, so it means you have no idea who they are.