Update: thank you everyone! user @Today has provided a great link of a discussion that suggests the correct answer is where being an abbreviation of, whereas as a replacement of since, hypothesized in these comments.

As I love archaic definitions, I’m more convinced to now that this is the answer!

Especially since the question originates from one weirdo using “where” instead of since.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/338694/is-it-ever-appropriate-to-use-where-instead-of-because-or-since


Like “Where we knew he was heading to Chicago tomorrow, we got on the first plane heading east to intercept.”

“Where we knew where the safe was, we began to cut through the wall in the corner behind her desk.”

Thanks

  • @[email protected]
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    14 months ago

    Do you mean like, “in the situation of?” For example, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

    Otherwise I’d say that since they’re both prepositions–dealing with the relationship between two or more things in space or time–it sounds like somebody was just a little confused about how to explain it.

    Where people use them interchangeably you’re likely to find non-native English speakers.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      34 months ago

      Yes, it’s used consistently to express “in the situation of…” the same way “since” is normally used.

      This is a native English speaker from Colorado, but after looking it up, I don’t see any indication that some Coloradans regularly use “where” instead of “since”.

      I never heard that when I was in Denver.

      Everything else is written in standard English.