Common Expressions Trivia Quiz

Answer: A song

It's a tag from 'The Isle of Beauty', a song written by English poet Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839). Having looked over some of his verse, which seems to be of the same school as that of Patience Strong and Helen Steiner Rice, I can understand why Bayly is one of England's forgotten poets.

Answer: Payment for ballad sheets

In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries street hawkers would sell printed copies of the latest hit songs. Since a ballad sheet did not cost very much, the trifling amount paid for it soon became applied to any bargain.

Answer: Ireland

The Irish invented a strange game called Bandy (which is similar to field hockey without any rules). Teams played with curved sticks and passed the ball from side to side down the field towards the opposing team's goal. This side-to-side passing of the ball was called bandying, and when two people are arguing, they'll pass heated words back and forth. One can also have one's good name "bandied about", which is not desirable.

Answer: Winning a competition

Believe it or not, people would engage in various kinds of competitions just to win a cake. In ancient Greece the cake went to the winner of a drinking competitions, and in bygone days in Ireland, cakes were awarded as prizes in dance competitions. The early twentieth century dance called the Cake Walk came from competitions common in black communities in the U.S. Couples would walk around a cake, while judges decided which pair walked most gracefully.

The winning couple "took the cake".

Answer: Extorting money from Jews

The history of anti-Semitism in Europe is of very long-standing, and Jews suffered mightily at the hands of Christian rulers. With regard to this phrase, it was not uncommon in mediaeval times when kings and barons ran out of ready cash for them to round up Jews and drag them over beds of hot coals.

This was done in order to force them to turn over their money to their persecutors. I'm not sure when this nasty practice was abandoned but Sir Walter Scott refers to it in his novel 'Ivanhoe', when Front-de-Boeuf threatens to haul Isaac over the coals.

Answer: Norse

Cats and dogs have long been associated with bad weather. In Norse legends, cats have a particular influence on weather patterns, particularly storms. In the days when ship's cats were common, and the cat was being unusually frisky, the sailors would comment that "The cat has a gale of wind in her tail." Even today, when a cat passes its paw over its ear while washing its face, it's taken as a sign of coming rain.

The dog, as an attendant (with the wolf) on the storm god Odin, is a symbol of strong winds. So, the cats are the downpour and the dogs are the winds that often accompany heavy downpours. Witches who rode their broomsticks during storms would assume the shape of cats, we're told.

As one who lives with cats and knows their hatred of rain or anything that gets their fur wet, I find this connection between cats and rain somewhat farfetched.

Another suggested origin for this phrase comes from the days when most houses had thatched roofs, with eaves that were very close to the ground. Cats and dogs would lie on the thatch, close to the chimney, for the warmth.

When it rained the thatch got very slippery, causing the cats and dogs to slide off the roof - hence "raining cats and dogs". I find that one a bit unbelievable.

Answer: The Bible

You can look it up in Ecclesiastes, chapter 10, verse one: "Dead flies make the perfumer's sweet ointment turn rancid and ferment; so can a little folly make wisdom lose its worth." (NEB)

Answer: Cribbage

Cribbage aficionados will get this in one! In cribbage, the game ends when one player pegs out ahead of the other(s). Pegging out, then, is associated with termination, and nothing is more terminal than death, right?

Answer: 17th century

In 17th century England a fellow named Thomas Hobson ran the only cartage and livery stable business in Cambridge. Since Cambridge was a university town, many of Hobson's livery stable customers were students, and it was they who coined the phrase. It seems that Mr. Hobson gave the students the choice of the horse in the stall nearest the stable door or no horse at all. Since they couldn't take their business to Hobson's competitors because there weren't any, the students made do with Hobson's choice.

There's an apocryphal story to the effect that Henry Ford offered his Model-T customers much the same choice when it came to the colour of the automobile: "Any colour you like as long as it's black." * Many thanks to funtrivia member mnbates for additional information on Thomas Hobson's dates (1544-1631) and the Henry Ford story apocryphal nature.

Answer: To avoid prosecution

The phrase dates back to the thirteenth century England, and refers to a law passed during the reign of Henry III. Under the law, bakers who short-changed their customers were liable to lose a hand. Seems pretty severe, but the law stated that a loaf of bread had to be a certain weight, and in order to make sure that the customer got full measure, the baker would sell thirteen loaves for the price of twelve.