Can You Rephrase That? Nummer Vier (4) Quiz

Answer: because of a rivalry between England and the Netherlands

For centuries, amicability and friendship has been evident on the part of the English and the Dutch. Alas, it was not always such.
In 1624, Dutch soldiers attacked the English at Amboina, East Indies. After they won the battle, they turned the victory into a bloody massacre. The English were incensed, but were unable to retaliate.
Then, in 1639, Admiral Maarten Tromp defeated two fleets of Spanish warships and in 1652, attacked the English.
This series of events caused the English to despise anything Dutch. When someone was cheated in a business deal, it became known as a "Dutch bargain"; common food, a "Dutch feast", and so on. Bravery induced by drink became "Dutch courage". Had it not been for William the third of Holland marrying Princess Mary of England in 1677, no one knows how long the enmity would have lasted.
The relations between the two countries have long been repaired, but "Dutch courage" remains in our speech due to an old, old rivalry on the high seas.

Answer: there were a lot of hidden secrets in the family

Of course. There are secrets in the family. Perhaps one of the best kept is that of Danny's great-great grandfather, Doctor Myeyes Jackson-Brown. A medical doctor in England in the mid 1800s, he was able to circumvent a law that forbade performing autopsies. The Anatomy Act of 1832 had a loophole that he quickly exploited. While it was illegal to practice dissection on an ordinary corpse, doctors were allowed to cut up the bodies of executed criminals.
"Resurrection men", or professional grave robbers would sell the bodies to physicians at very high prices; therefore a doctor might only be able to dissect one body in his entire lifetime.
Public opinion being what it was, he probably found it better to hide his skeleton away from the public eye. The practice became so common that people began to assume that all doctors had "a skeleton in the closet." The term has come to mean any secret that needn't be publicized.

Answer: it originally meant "am not"

The word "ain't" started in England in 1703 and found its way to America soon after, in the same decade. It bore no social stigma at the time because it was accepted as a substitute for "am not". By 1830, grammarians began to fight the word vigorously, as its meaning became altered to serve as an alternative for "is not".
"Ain't it the truth?" came into vogue in the American dialect around 1915. This expression has always been and remains, grammatically incorrect, but many people feel that, somehow, it is very right for certain circumstances.

Answer: Portuguese and Latin - skull nut

Portuguese parents in the 1700s attempted to scare their children into behaving better by telling them stories about the boogey man. They called him "coco", from the Latin, meaning skull. No child, of course, had ever actually SEEN a "coco", but they knew that he was reputed to be quite ugly. The first Portuguese who encountered the Pacific islands were shocked to find palm trees that produced a large brown nut about the size of a man's head.

It didn't help matters any when they noticed three black marks resembling a nose and two eyes on the surface of the nut.

It matched so closely to their concept of the boogey man that they called it "coco nut".

Answer: from the southeastern U.S.

"Juke" or "joog" is probably taken from the Gullah language, originally meaning "wicked or disorderly", and is of West African origin. Gullah is an English-based Creole language spoken by people of African ancestry in the coastal areas of Georgia and South Carolina, and who still use a number of words from the West African languages that were brought over by slaves. The word "juke-box" was used originally in Florida and later spread throughout the southeastern states, and may have implied engaging in sexually suggestive dances, but over time it has lost the connotation of sleaziness that it once had.
Another explanation that is of equal interest is that the word means "to cut".
So, whether a person was "juked", or "cut" in a juke-joint; or if they engaged in an early form of "dirty dancing", it was only natural that the music machine associated with the establishment where these things took place became known as the "juke box".

Answer: from a man named Bohn

Henry George Bohn, the son of a German bookbinder, was born in London. He started as a dealer of rare books in 1831, but by 1846 he had begun works on translations dealing with history, science, classics, theology and archaeology. His works in Greek and Latin became very popular among students of the day, and they used them to help get passing grades.

They referred to their shortcut to study as "Bohn up" to begin with, but this was naturally corrupted to "bone up" in a very short time.

Answer: Honduras

What?...Honduras you say?! Wait a minute! Everyone knows the finest chocolates are to be found in Europe.

But wait...

The Mayan Indians of Honduras were the first to grind cacao beans to make chocolate. They would then add water, maize (corn), and sometimes even chilies to create a delightful, (to them), bitter beverage. European explorers were not quite so enthusiastic about it; that is until they took some back home and someone got the bright idea to add sugar to the mix. The rest, as they say is, well, history.

Answer: from artistic puppetry interpretations of the Bible

Once wildly popular during classical times, hand puppets fell into obscurity during the Dark Ages, (as did most everything else). After the 10th century, however, there was a revival of interest, mostly linked with dramatic interpretations of Biblical events. Eventually, hand puppets were replaced with marionettes, little figures worked by strings. An unseen operator controlled the stringed figures.
Today anyone who manipulates others from a distance may be said "to pull strings."

Answer: it was an idea from a movie director

If you said the movie director, you were correct. Congratulations. If not, read on to find out more...

The countdown technique was used in the launching scene of a huge rocket in a science fiction film in the late 1920s, by a man named Fritz Lang. The film was entitled, "The Girl in the Moon", and Lang thought it would create more suspense to do a backward count rather than the usual straightforward 1,2,3...type count.

Science later imitated art when it used his techniques during the years of the great space race.

Answer: it originally meant "house owner"

Uh-huh. House owner.
Home ownership is a fairly modern development. Until the end of feudal times, the serfs or servants, lived in rough cottages that belonged to their masters. A very few people belonged to the freeholder class, and some of these were given the hereditary honor; others became freeholders because of heroism in wartime or some other exploit. A man who won or inherited the title of freeholder was given the privilege of owning a home and maybe a few acres of land.
The term husband is derived from "hus" (house) and "bunda" (owner). Many an anxious mother was eager to seek out a "husband", or house-owner for her daughter, but by the thirteenth century, the term had come to mean any married man, whether he was a homeowner or not.