Check out my companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid)
Idiom(s) of the day: not know someone from Adam
My category (Russian-to-English translation): Общение и отношения (Communication and relationships).
Explanation(s):
Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):
If you say that you don’t know someone from Adam, you mean that you do not know them at all, and would not recognize them if you saw them. The reference here is to the first human being, Adam, according to the Bible.
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
to have no knowledge of or acquaintance with (someone)
To not know a person; be unable to recognize someone.
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
not know or be completely unable to recognize the person in question. ORIGIN from Hebrew 'ādām ‘man’, later taken to be a name.
Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:
to be unacquainted with
Translation(s):
CCDI:
Не иметь ни малейшего представления, понятия о ком-либо; не знать кого-либо в лицо; видом не видал, слухом не слыхал.
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
не иметь ни малейшего представления о ком-л., не знать кого-л. в лицо
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
Multitran (www.multitran.ru):
не иметь ни малейшего представления; не соображать, что к чему
Examples:
CCDI:
We’ll have one contact, who is simply a voice on the phone to us. I don’t know him from Adam.
I knew nobody: I took with me two names and telephone numbers. One was an Anglo-Argentine couple: friends of a friend, who didn’t know me from Adam.
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
I have no idea who that guy is that Jane just walked in with; I don't know him from Adam.
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
Multilex (www.multilex.ru):
I don't know him from ~ я его никогда в глаза не видел.
I don't know him from Adam я его (в жизни) в глаза не видал;
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:
not to know (a person) from Adam: not to recognize him
1784 London Sessions Feb. 400/1 Some man stopped me, I do not know him from Adam. 1795 T. Wilkinson Wand. Patentee IV. 129 He was so great a stranger I should not have known him from our father Adam. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xxxviii, He called to see my Governor this morning,‥and beyond that I don't know him from Adam. 1900 Buchan Half-Hearted xx, I found people I didn't know from Adam drinking the old toasts
Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:
He says hello to us every morning, but we don't know him from Adam.
British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): [know] * from Adam, total 7
"Who called, do we know them?" "No, nobody knows 'em from Adam ," he nodded jovially at the gardener who flashed back with a wall of white teeth.
"No one's saying it is, but I'm in the house because I'm doing you a favour. I don't know Sunil from Adam --;" and I went on before he could ask Adam who?" --; and naturally, the cops will want to check that out.
Dibble said, "Please bear in mind that Lena didn't know me from Adam but she was so helpful and concerned, she took a chance on my honesty
My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid): I’m amazed and flattered that people who don't know me from Adam find it worthwhile to follow me on Twitter.
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