A Prayer and a Wing Trivia Quiz

Answer: fly on the wall

One of the best-known examples of a 'fly on the wall' documentary is the 'Big Brother' franchise, with versions in many countries across the world. The term is also used as an expression as in 'I'd love to be a fly on the wall to be there when...' meaning you would like to observe something secretly while remaining unnoticed.

Answer: swoop

The word 'swoop' describes a bird flying in a quick descent when it captures its prey. The expression 'one fell swoop' comes from Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth', said in a moment of grief by Macduff on being informed of the murders of his wife, son and entire household on Macbeth's orders.

Answer: hair

Coots are a species of waterfowl. They have white markings on their head which can, from a distance, give the impression of baldness, hence the expression.

The saying 'as bald as a coot' is believed to have originated in the 13th century. It appears as 'And yet he was as balde as is a coote' in John Lydgate's 'Chronicle of Troy', published in 1430.

Answer: albatross

The albatross is the largest of the sea birds and has many sailors' superstitions attached to it. This particular saying takes its origin from Coleridge's poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', about a sailor who shoots an albatross and has to carry its weight around his neck as punishment;

'God save thee, ancient Mariner
From the fiends, that plague thee thus
Why look'st thou so ? - With my cross-bow
I shot the albatross.

Ah. well a-day. what evil looks
Had I from old and young
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.'

An albatross following a ship is said to be a good luck omen and by killing it, the sailor in the poem brought bad luck upon the ship and its crew, who all died.

Answer: the bee's knees

As in 'she really thinks she's the bee's knees'. Apparently this expression is more recent. Funnily enough the expression 'the bee's knees' originally referred to a tiny, meaningless thing, but changed its meaning in the 1920s to its present meaning. Another expression which means much the same is 'she really thinks she's the cat's whiskers'.

Answer: bird

The saying 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' is very well-known, meaning that it is best to hold on to what you actually have rather than risk losing it with no certainty of gaining more. Its exact origin is uncertain, but its first documented appearance is said to be by the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod in his poem 'Works and Days'.

It also appears in Aesop's fables as 'The Hawk and the Nightingale', which is probably better-known.

Answer: lark

The lark is one of the first birds to begin singing in the morning, in the 'dawn chorus', hence the expression. Another bird-related slang term is 'up with the crows', but of the birds listed above the lark is the notably early riser. There is also the expression 'the early bird catches the worm' meaning that someone who is prepared to rise early is more likely to succeed in accomplishing what they want.

Answer: owl

The exact opposite of a 'lark' is the 'night owl', the phrase used to describe a person who goes to bed late. This can also be summed up in the expression 'burning the midnight oil', which stems from the days before electricity was commonly available and oil lamps were the source of light during the hours of darkness.

Answer: like a bat out of hell

As all music lovers will know, Meat Loaf popularised the idiom with his epic 'Bat Out of Hell' album in 1977, but the first recorded use of the phrase is actually much older. It is believed to stem from the work 'The Birds' by Aristophanes, the playwright from Ancient Greece, around 414 BC.

A more recent popularisation of the phrase came into usage in the UK during World War I, referring to planes flying at maximum speed, as bats fly very fast, and give the impression of flying at their top speed. Nowadays it often refers to people driving too fast - 'he drove down the road like a bat out of hell'.

Answer: goose

There are several theories as to the origin of this particular idiom. One of these dates back to England in the days when it was common practice to keep a goose for its eggs until it stopped laying, whereupon it would be cooked and eaten. If a family 'cooked their goose' in times of hardship before it had finished laying, they might therefore come to regret it.

There are many phrases using the word 'goose', among them 'killing the goose that lays the golden egg', 'goose bumps', 'can't say boo to a goose', 'going on a wild goose chase' and 'what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander' to name but a few.