Can You Rephrase That? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Making a purchase without examining it.

Sometimes, especially during medieval days of traveling fairs, certain dishonest folks would sell cats (which were plentiful and cheap) in a cloth bag or a brown paper sack, (the poke), instead of the baby piglet that they claimed was inside. They would then collect their money and quickly disappear into the crowd, leaving the hapless victim to open the bag only to discover that he had been duped.

This is also where the phrase "letting the cat out of the bag" originated.

Answer: card gambling

A "board" is an old word for "table", and of course, dropping one's hands beneath the board could be construed as an opportunity for cheating. It was considered a show of honesty to keep one's hands "above the board."

Answer: British geese farmers

"Gooseherders", as they were known in medieval England, usually plucked their geese five times a year. Geese, like many other birds, are equipped with an elaborate set of muscles that pulls feathers erect and forms a type of insulation or a dead-air blanket. Once the geese feathers had been plucked, the muscles continued their function, causing a noticeable pimpling of the exposed skin. Humans have a similar tendency to react the same way when exposed to drafty air or when nervous sensations occur. Thus, it was only natural to a compare these effects to that of a goose that had been plucked.

Answer: from the mispronunciation of another word

In the early days of the U.S., travelers had to carry their food with them. Inns were notorious for not serving food, except on rare occasions, and soft wheat bread often turned moldy or sour soon after baking. Housewives, through experimentation, discovered that corn breads would last much longer, especially when baked into small, hard cakes.

These were originally called journey cakes, but due to slovenly pronunciation, they eventually became known as "johnny-cakes".

Answer: dueling

Dueling, a European practice that was beginning to be frowned upon in Europe, found new life in the early days of America. Dueling with cavalry swords or pistols became a popular method of settling disputes with honor. Congressmen, senators, military officers and even one future president made use of dueling to settle disputes. The lower classes of roughnecks and river workers were not so formal in their exercise of this type of fighting. One thing that nearly everyone agreed on, however, was the need for a third party to signal the okay for the duel to begin.

This was usually done from a safe distance, usually by dropping a hat as a signal to begin. Today, anyone who is ready to fight or react quickly is said to be prepared to respond "at the drop of a hat".

Answer: hard times following the American Civil War

Various criminal elements resorted to all sorts of dirty tricks during the hard years that followed the Civil War in America. One favorite tactic was the selling of fraudulent mine stock. The swindlers would ask their victims for a "small deposit", with the full amount to be paid only after a trip to the Western mines by the purchaser (victim).

The swindler would "work" an individual, or even a village or town, then quietly take off. This became known as a confidence game with the confidence-man operating the scam. Con men, as they became known, practiced many types of deceptions through the years, and even though their methods may have changed, they still try to swindle by winning the confidence of their intended victims.

Answer: an Icelandic horse

Early English adventurers were amazed at the beauty of the countryside of Iceland. That is, until they encountered the first scrawny, miserable native mare.
The explorers burst into laughter, and when they returned home, they modified the Icelandic/Norse word for mare, "jalda" into "jade".
Thus, any sorry, worn-out horse became known as a jade. By the seventeenth century, any great weariness was likely to be compared to the worn-out horse and could be referred to as being "jaded".

Answer: from the courtroom actions of judges

It wasn't until the nineteenth century that criminals began associating the rapping of the judge's gavel with sentences that were imposed.
(Talk about your slow learners!)
As long as testimony was being given or deliberations were in progress, the accused still could maintain hope of acquittal; that is, until the judge rapped the gavel down on his desk.
Attorneys for the accused used every opportunity to "beat" the rap to prevent their clients from being sentenced. This expression came to stand for any method of avoiding a penalty.

Answer: Medieval English slang for "dressing"

For centuries, any type of dress was known as "attire." Careless pronunciation reduced this medieval word to 'tire'.
Everything from a woman's skirt to a curved iron plate that covered wheels of wagons fell under the name "attire." These iron tires were used by the fifteenth century military wagons, and remained a standard fixture until Dunlop devised a cast iron tire with a groove in it to hold India rubber bands in place. Metal bands quickly became obsolete, and the tire took on its modern qualities, yet the vitally important "wheel dressing" retained its name.

Answer: it comes from a derogatory term for country people

A bird, the blue-jay, had been seldom seen in the Old World, but was prolific in the New World. As villages grew into cities, these colorful, raucous birds came to be associated with more sparsely settled areas. It took only a small step of the imagination to associate them with the people who lived in these outlying areas.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, "jay" became synonymous with "hick" or "country bumpkin." When these folks visited the cities, they generally were ignorant of traffic laws and ignored corners and crossed against signals as they walked.

These "jays" violated the rules governing traffic so often that they came to be known as "jaywalkers."