The Devil in Idiom Trivia

1. Finish this statement: "The devil finds work for________."

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: idle hands

This is a warning against laziness. My mother would quote it whenever she found me sitting thinking, and would promptly follow up with some chore that I disliked. I sometimes wondered - who was finding work for me? I never dared ask!

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: Lilith

Since Ishtar and Ashtaroth are the same entity (Ishtar is the Babylonian moon goddess and Ashtaroth is her Phoenician equivalent) and Astarte is the Greek rendering of Ashtaroth, that leaves Lilith. According to Jewish rabbinical tradition, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. He found her extremely difficult to live with because she was arrogant, vicious and mean-spirited, so he asked God to make another wife for him. God obliged with Eve and Lilith went off to live with the Devil, thereby becoming his dam (an old English word meaning both mother and wife). Lilith is a night demon (her name derives from the proto-Semitic word for night - 'LYL') and she tends to hang out in the wilderness when it is stormy. She also has a predilection for harming children. The King James Version version of the Bible refers to Lilith as a screech owl, the Revised Standard Version has her down as a night monster, and the New English Bible as a nightjar. Only the New Revised Standard Version calls her Lilith (Isaiah 34:14). One wonders if Sarah McLachlan knew who Lilith really was when she named her travelling all-female-artists musical festival 'Lilith Fair'. I doubt if Lilith would be interested in the fact that Ms McLachlan and the other women have raised over ten million dollars for women's charities by their efforts.

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: The Devil rides on a fiddlestick

Rubbish or nonsense (as in fiddlesticks!). "The Devil to pay and no pitch hot" is a nautical term. The "devil" in this case was the term given to the tarred seams between plankings. "To pull the Devil by the tail" is to continually struggle against adversity. The "Devil's Dancing Hour" is midnight of course.

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: due

No matter how hard we try to deny it or not recognise it, just about every person, no matter how bad they are, has at least one good thing about them. For instance, we all know that Hitler was a pig, but to give the devil his due, he was an incredibly charismatic man.

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: in an empty pocket

This saying means that when you are short of funds you may easily be tempted into doing something illegal or immoral. Another interpretation, which is what I used to think was its meaning, is that the devil caused the empty pocket and now he is dancing with glee because he has made someone poor. That doesn't have any moral meaning, though. but it is much more satisfying somehow.

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: Printers' apprentices

Printers' apprentices have been called printer's devils since Moxon made his comment. Before he was appointed as Charles II's hydrographer, Moxon had been a printer of maps, mathematical works and Bibles, so he should know. The apprentices were responsible for removing the printed sheets from the printing press and no doubt got liberally smudged with printer's ink. I'm sure that pitboys, masons' apprentices and chandlers' apprentices (who worked with tar in the making of rope) also covered themselves in black dust, tar and so on, but nobody thought to refer to them as devils.

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: The Devil among the Tailors

In the game, the "devil" is a spinning top and the "tailors" are little woooden figures. "Ship the Devil 'round the stump" means to enjoy the fruits of evil-doing without having to suffer the penalty. "Pull Devil, Pull Baker" is sort of like push me pull you, an argument neither can win. The Devil's Music is what "elder" folks in the 50's called rock (Elvis, etc)

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: You're an incredibly lucky person

If a person has the "luck of the devil" or "the devil's own luck," everything just always seems to go their way. For instance, someone who won the lottery three times (I have my doubts that this has happened) might be said to have the luck of the devil. Incidentally, an old wives' tale says that if you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (e.g. Jack the Ripper and Charles Manson!)

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: he will appear

This saying was originally "Talk of a wolf", which was once a real threat because wolves were indigenous to England. When they were eliminated, however, another threat had to be found for this saying and the devil stepped in.

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: In a church

If you visit some of the mediaeval churches still extant in England you will find the Devil's door set into the north wall (although many of them have been blocked up in these more enlightened times). The Devil's door was opened during services of baptism and Holy Communion "to let the Devil out" (one wonders how he got into the church in the first place!). In parts of rural Britain, the north side of the church is still referred to as "the Devil's side" where Satan and his minions supposedly lurk to pounce on churchgoers as they leave church, and even today some families object to having their loved ones buried in the north section of a cemetery because of the association with the north side of the church. You'll find a great many churches in the UK with graves on the east, west and south side of the church but none on the north side. Nowadays, churches aren't built with either Devil's doors or lepers' squints.

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: Devil's Arrows

Only three of the Devil's Arrows remain standing today. They have also been called "The Three Greyhounds", "The Three Sisters" and "The Devil's Bolts". A "twilly devil" is a machine for cleansing or loosening wool. "Devil's Fingers" is a nickname for starfish. "Devil's Dozen" = 13.

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: than the devil you don't

Basically, this idiom is suggesting that it's far better to remain in a bad situation, than to risk changing it and leaving it as it is. Personally, I think this is absolute poppycock and if you don't like something, you should do all that is in your power to make it better, but hey, I didn't write the idiom. While not set in concrete, it's believed that this idiom is Irish in origin, and can be traced back to R Taverner's 1539 collection of idioms.

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: any blackberries left unpicked after 29th September

There is a tradition used by Milton in his poem "Paradise Lost", which says that the devil was once an angel in Heaven, but after he blasphemed, the archangel, St Michael, ousted him from Heaven and he fell to earth. He landed on September 29th (St Michael's Day)in a bramble bush. He promptly cursed the bush, its prickles and its blackberries, so you are advised not to pick or eat any of them after September because from then on, they belong to the devil and have been cursed by him.

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: Playing cards

It was the Puritans who referred to playing cards as the Devil's picture books, probably on the basis that they considered card games sinful. Even as recently as my childhood in Wales, I can remember that playing cards on a Sunday was considered a definite no-no by the more Calvinistic of our neighbours - even if it was a hand of Patience (Solitaire in the US). Some etymologists maintain that the term also came about as the 16th century Calvinist response to the common phrase 'The Kings' Books' used to describe a deck of cards (which contained four face cards depicting kings, of course). Since cards were used in gambling and gambling was a vice, Puritans and Calvinists were naturally against them. One wonders if Puritans had any fun at all!

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: The Devil's Missionary

Given to Voltaire by those who were critical of his libertarian views on religion. Note that the name Voltaire is also a "nickname"/pen name (he was born François-Marie Arouet in 1694). A "king devil" is a European hawkweed (Hieracium praealtum). A "printer's devil" is an errand boy in a print shop, so called because they were usually covered head to toe in black printing ink. The "French Devil" is generally agreed to be the nickname of Jean Bart, a French admiral (called a privateer in England) who proved to be a royal pain in the stern to the English Fleet during the late 1600s.

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: They spent a good amount of time doing something very difficult

This is quite an old-fashioned idiom, but I like it! When one says that they had the "devil's job" doing something, it generally means that their task was fairly difficult and unpleasant. After all, it can't be too easy keeping peace with all the dead souls in hell, can it? ;)

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: The Devil's snuff-box

"Devil's Snuff-box" is the common name for the fungus Lycoperdon perlatum. As a child, you may have stomped on a few dried up ones just to watch the dust-like spores explode into the air. "Devil's dust" is flocking made from old rags torn up by a machine called a "devil". "Devil's Bolete" is indeed a member of the fungi family, but it is a toadstool-like mushroom, not a puff-ball (by the way, even the spores are considered poisonous, so never mind eating one, don't smell it either!). A "mountain devil" is a spiny Australian desert lizard (Moloch horridus)

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: Tom has just unexpectedly appeared in their midst

This idiom is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages, where it was considered bad luck to speak about the devil, or evil in general, as it was considered to be an invitation to the devil to appear. The idiom is basically a shortened version of the original English saying, "speak of the devil and he shall appear" or "talk of the devil, and he's presently at your elbow." It's an idiomatic instruction that warns against talking about people behind their backs, and tempting fate. Funnily enough, most languages have their own version of this idiom, with many of them referring to a wolf rather than the devil. One that I found particularly amusing is the Swedish "när man talar om trollen så står de i farstun", which translates to "when you speak of trolls, they stand in the entrance hall."

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: White Devil

The phrase White Devil first appears in publication as the title of a 1608 dramatization by John Webster about an Italian murderess named Vittoria Corombona. "Devil on two sticks" is the original name of a juggling toy, later called a diabolo. "Devil's bird" is the Scottish nickname for the yellow bunting. "Devil's daughter" is slang for a shrewish woman.

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: They'll do something bad in order to get what they want

Someone who will "sell their soul to the devil" is someone who is desperate or greedy enough to do something bad (like selling their soul) in order to benefit themselves (think about it: would YOU really like to spend the rest of eternity in the company of the devil? I think not). In various legends, people selling their soul to the devil is often done in return for favours such as wealth or power. As a matter of trivia, some fundamentalist religious groups hold the belief that celebrities have all sold their souls to the devil; after all, how else could they become famous?

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: you know

It may be better to accept the certainty of a less welcome option than the promise of something unfamiliar. This is a Greek story: There was once a group of frogs who wanted a king, so they appealed to Zeus. He gave them an old wooden log, but it did nothing so they asked for something alive. This time Zeus gave them a long, thin, water snake, who soon ate up all the frogs. The moral is obvious.

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: Aboard ship

The phrase stems from the days of sailing ships. The Devil in question was the outboard plank between the gunwale and the waterline of a ship. The seam between it and the side of the ship was wider than the seams between the other planks and very difficult to get at. Because of its proximity to the water the Devil required frequent re-caulking and hot pitch was used to caulk the seams. Caulking was called paying back then, and it was not unknown for the ship's maintenance crew to run out of hot pitch before they got down to the difficult task of paying the Devil, which always required more pitch than the other planks. Makes sense now, doesn't it? Of course, if I was in charge, we'd do the difficult job first and pay the Devil before we payed any other planks. But then we wouldn't have such a lovely phrase to roll off our tongues when we run out of the necessities. We also get the phrase "Between the Devil and the deep blue sea" from the era of sailing ships and it refers to that same plank. It means the same as the modern term "Between a rock and a hard place".

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: Devil's livery

Livery is clothing, usually a uniform of some sort. The colours of the "Devil's Livery" are black (representing death) and yellow (for quarantine). "Devil With the Blue Dress On" was a song originally recorded by Frederick "Shorty" Long in 1964, later covered by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels in 1966, who made the speeded up version a bigger hit. "The Devil Wears Prada" was a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.

From Quiz That's a Devilish Thing to Say!

Answer: shame the devil

This was always said to me as a child when I was caught out in a lie. That was all very well, but I was not brave enough to face the consequences - not like Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Winchester, who insisted on claiming that he believed in Protestantism even to the extent of being burned at the stake for it.

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: Devil's Lake

Devil's Lake is both a lake and a city in North Dakota. There is also a Devil's Lake (and State Park) in Wisconsin. Devil's Dyke is in the UK near Brighton. There are many Devil's Holes around the world (two most notable in North America are in the Niagara Falls area and the Nevada Desert), but none in North Dakota. Devil's Dip goes over great at parties.

From Quiz Some Devilish Idioms

Answer: They are reckless and carefree

People with a "devil-may-care" attitude are generally wildly reckless and carefree, and don't really care about the consequences of their actions. This is a lovely attitude to have when you're young (after all, to be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid, right?) but can have some seriously devastating consequences later on. As a purely unrelated matter of trivia, "Devil May Care" is a James Bond book written by Sebastian Faulks in 2008 in honour of Ian Fleming (James Bond's creator's) hundredth anniversary of his birth.

From Quiz The Devil You Say!

Answer: Midnight

The Devil's dancing hour is midnight, of course. The tradition is that witches would foregather at midnight and the Devil would appear and dance with them. (Remember Macbeth's description of the Three Witches? He called them "Secret, black and midnight hags.") The clue? In 1945 Jack Benny starred in an odd little film called 'The Horn Blows at Midnight'. The film was billed as a comedy fantasy and was a huge flop. For the rest of his performing life, Benny used references to 'The Horn Blows at Midnight' as a running gag in his radio and television shows.

From Quiz Be-deviled

Answer: Devil's bones

"Devil's bones" are dice (made from bones of course) which, according to folklore, led to the ruin of any poor soul silly enough to gamble with you-know-who. "Devil's coits" and "Devil's stones" are huge standing stones, typically in the UK. "Devil's stones" is also the nickname for plant with hard twinned fruits named field gromwell, reputed to have contraceptive qualities. "Knucklebones" is a slang term for normal dice, but the "Devil's Knuckles" is a scenic area in South Africa.

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