Many of you have no doubt heard a person say that he didn’t know someone else from Adam’s off ox, but you may not have stopped to consider the peculiar aptness of this folk expression.  I recall my grandparents and parents would use the phrase quite often but I never thought to delve into what the words truly meant.  What is an “off ox”, and who was Adam?  What did this have to do with not knowing somebody?

 

Some discussion about this expression followed its use by President Clinton in a news conference in June, 1993.  It puzzled many American commentators then, because it’s a phrase that is known only in some parts of the United States, mostly the southern states.  Since the media is made up of mostly city people they were totally unfamiliar with the phrase.

 

The phrase dates back to the time when teams of oxen were used to pull wagons.  It was used in it’s basic form to mean that a person is entirely unknown to the speaker.  This form was recorded from Britain in a report of a court case at the London Sessions as far back as 1784:  “Some man stopped me, I do not know him from Adam’s off ox.”  It is certainly older in the spoken language.

 

Speakers in various parts of the United States have at times commented that they don’t know somebody from Adam’s housecoat, Adam’s brother, Adam’s foot, and Adam’s pet monkey.  Adam’s off ox  is easily the most puzzling of these variations to us today because the days of oxen teams are now long past.

 

Using a team of oxen, the “near ox” was the one on the left side of the wagon.  The driver always walked on the left side of the team with the near-side ox at his right shoulder.  He would then get to know the personality and idiosyncrasies of this near ox very well.  However, the “off ox” was hidden behind the far side one on the right, and was yoked so that it could do nothing but follow.  So, the “off ox” was, figuratively at least, less well known.

 

Of Adam’s two oxen the near ox is better known than the off ox for two reasons: first, he is nearer the driver, and, second, the sight of him is unobstructed.  We can say then, that the off ox is less known than the near ox, who in turn is less known than Adam, who is not known at all.

 

The term is found in print from 1894 onwards, but must surely be older.  One of its appearances was in Flying U Ranch, by B. M. Bower, of about 1914: “Andy shook hands all round, swore amiably at Weary, and advanced finally upon Miguel. ‘You don’t know me from  Adam’s off ox,’ he began genially, ‘but I know you all right, all right.”

 

Another less known idiom is that the “off ox” cannot be so well seen and may therefore get the worst of the footing and stumble.  It is for that reason that “off ox” has been used figuratively to designate a clumsy or awkward person.

 

It seems that this expression is even less well known now, except for the occasional old film and U.S. presidential folk idiom.  So, to some of you older readers, the next time you use this phrase you will have a better idea of why you are using it, what it means, and from whence it came.  To the younger readers, I doubt that you will ever utter such words, but should you, the other person won’t know of which you speak.