From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!jah Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: Re: It"s OK by me. Article-I.D.: brunix.1617 Posted: Sun Feb 20 10:17:25 1983 Received: Mon Feb 21 02:49:27 1983 References: crystal.163 Yiddish folks coming to America had difficulty in differentiating the English words "woth" and "by." They were often used interchangably and strong together. Thus, My suspicion is that we need look no further than "with me" for the origin of "by me."