the dear knows

2 definitions

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#1·3h ago

(Ireland, dated) God knows; nobody knows.

1806 'Caleb Thistle' "How are the mighty fallen!" in The Evening Fire-side; or Literary Miscellany (Philadelphia; 10 May 1806) [http://books.google.ie/books?id=bVlFAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22the%20dear%20knows%22&pg=PA147#v=onepage&q=%22the%20dear%2…

Origin: Unclear. Bliss and Dolan suggest a conflation of dear, as in "oh dear" or "the Dear Lord", and deer, by analogy with the conflation in Irish of Fiadha "God" and fiadh "deer". Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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#2·3h ago

(Ireland, dated) God knows; of course, certainly, nobody could doubt.

: O thou, whom poets call Melpomene,

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