I know "I know about him" but don't know "I know of him"
Question is: I know of him. What does this mean or imply?
PS. think of vs know of is a totally different phrase
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1Does this answer your question? "Think of" versus "think about". The same of / about preposition difference applies to many verbs - think, hear, know,...– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 10, 2021 at 13:47
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Fumble, think of is different from know of and you could understand what I mean if you refer to the generative grammar by Chomsky.– gomadengCommented Feb 16, 2021 at 7:03
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I don't think much of Chomsky's politics or his ideas about universal / generative grammar. No-one seems interested in the answer I added to the that earlier question, but the original of it was well received on ELU some years ago. I did actually use the word know several times when analysing hear / think of / about, but I didn't explicitly point out that to know of / to know about manifests exactly the same semantic distinction as with hear, think. But to know of [something / someone] isn't common these days, and I certainly wouldn't encourage its use.– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 16, 2021 at 12:43
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1 Answer
to have heard of someone or something and be able to give a small amount of information about him, her, or it:
Do you know of a good doctor?
We usually use this when we have limited information about someone or something, or when we have heard about them in passing. We know about their existence, but we don't know much about them.
"I know of Goku" implies you are familiar with the name and the character. "I know about Goku" implies you know his training regimen, his abilities, Super Saiyan stages, etc. We also use "I know about ..." when we receive information about someone or something from a third party. In this context, we don't use "I know of ...".
"I know John" implies a personal relationship. "I know about John" implies learning info about John from a third party. "I know of John" means the name rings a bell. – KeithS Jun 14 '11 at 22:15 (see ELU post “Know about” vs. “know of”)
Compare these two:
I know of lock-picking. (You know what it means and what it does.)
I know a thing or two about lock-picking. (You actually know a bit about it, i.e., how to - or not to - do it.)
