1

This context comes from the movie Gangs Of New York by Martin Scorese.

Take him for a boat ride, John. Who knows, but he might save your life again.

(The person speaking knows that John's life was saved once by the other person. Therefore he recommends taking the other man with him.)

  1. that (used esp. after doubt, deny, etc., with a negative): I don't doubt but you'll do it. (Random House Kernerman Webster's College)

This definition fits but it is supposed to take a negative.

tchrist
  • 134,759
Static Bounce
  • 249
  • 3
    Can you provide more of the surrounding dialogue for better context? – dubious Feb 07 '23 at 14:01
  • 2
    It would be strange for the negative but to be used by a modern mafiosi. I think this is the "ordinary" but -> Who knows what might happen, but it is possible that he might save your life again. However, without context, this remains conjecture. – Greybeard Feb 07 '23 at 14:52
  • We need intonation to determine. However, this does not seem to be the but you are suggesting. – Tinfoil Hat Feb 07 '23 at 15:20
  • Gangs of New York is set in 1862 so it might either be genuine 19th century dialect, or an attempt at it. – Stuart F Feb 07 '23 at 15:46
  • There are a lot of other questions here about "but"; you should have a look, e.g. but that, known but to God – Stuart F Feb 07 '23 at 15:49
  • 'Who knows' arguably has enough of a non-positive quality to work here ... though I'd say this example is unusual. But then this usage of 'but' is at best archaic. // There is a deleted 'that': Who knows, but that he might save your life again?' – Edwin Ashworth Feb 07 '23 at 19:14
  • I'm with @Greybeard. The ordinary use of a comma with "but" to connect two main clauses makes sense here, and I can't think of any other meaning of "but" (including Tuffy's suggestion) that would work better. – MarcInManhattan Feb 08 '23 at 01:30

2 Answers2

0

This structure is derived from a Latin usage. Latin had a (to us) strange subordinating conjunction, quin, twhich was followed by a verb in the subjunctive. Instead of writing omnes sciunt (everybody knows) they would often write

Nemo est quin sciat

School kids were often advised by Latin teachers, trying to capture what exactly was going on grammatically in this upside down way of speaking, to translate it:

There is nobody but that he knows.

It is a sort of virtual double negative. 'But' has a usage as meaning 'except', as is mentioned in the Cambridge dictionary:

'But' meaning ‘except’: But means ‘except’ when it is used after words such as all, everything/nothing, everyone/no one, everybody/nobody: … But for + reason But for is used to introduce the reason why something didn’t happen: … All but meaning ‘almost completely’

In your example of this usage, "Who knows" stands for "nobody knows" We have all as children shrugged our shoulders and said "who cares?", meaning that "nobody cares". So what is meant is:

Who knows, , he might save your life again.

Tuffy
  • 11,165
0

Who knows, but ....

To me regardless of context implies that a number of outcomes are possible (hence who knows) - not necessarily the one anticipated..

RiagoMinota
  • 327
  • 4