EmBODied Idioms Trivia Quiz

Answer: bone

A bone of contention is something that two or more people argue strongly about for a long period of time, i.e., continued disagreement or an ongoing argument. The origin of the idiom relates back to two dogs fighting over the same bone.

Example: The movie star's will was a bone of contention for his whole family.

Answer: heart

Wearing your heart on your sleeve refers to people who express their true emotions freely and openly, i.e., someone who is honest about his/her feelings. The phrase seems to have been used first in writing by Shakespeare, in 1603 in "Othello" when, ironically, it was said by the duplicitous Iago.

It may have started in the Middle Ages, when a knight in a jousting match would dedicate his performance to a woman by tying something of hers around his arm.

Answer: mouth

The phrase 'living from hand to mouth' was used during one of the 'great famines' in Britain when people had so little to eat that, when they did receive a piece of food, they would literally put it straight from hand to mouth to ensure that no one would take it away and eat it before they did.

The saying comes from those desperate times when people did not know where their next meal would be coming from.

Answer: foot

'Footing the bill' is a slang expression which means to pay the charges or, colloquially, to pick up the tab. The first usage was around the early 1800s, where the word 'foot' was used in the sense of adding up and totaling the charge at the foot or bottom of the account/check.

Example: The father of the bride usually foots the bill for the wedding.

Answer: teeth

The expression "lying through his teeth" refers to someone who is smiling, showing his teeth and telling you what you want to hear, all the while being duplicitous and telling you an intentional untruth. The phrase, also "to lie in one's teeth" dates back to the 1300s with "The Romances of Sir Guy of Warwick". I wonder if this idiom also refers to ventriloquists?

Example: He asked me my age, and I lied through my teeth.

Answer: ear

"Playing by ear" originally referred to playing music without the assistance of any musical notation or sheet music. The use of the word 'ear' to denote musical talent dates back to the 16th century, while the first record of the phrase in print was in The Edinburgh Review in 1839. Recently, the saying is used figuratively to mean handling a situation extemporaneously, without referring to pre-determined guidelines.

Answer: face

It is unclear what, exactly, is the source of 'face the music'. There are, however, two common assertions: in the army, disgraced officers were "drummed out" of their regiments, consequently having to 'face the music'; the second theory is that actors on stage were told to 'face the music' in the form of the orchestra pit.

The first written appearance of the idiom appeared in 'The New Hampshire Statesmen and State Journal' in August 1834, when the editor of 'The Courier' was asked to explain his actions and 'face the music'.

Answer: nose

Since the nose is the part of the body used for smelling, it has evolved into an ability to detect something, i.e., to sniff it out. A 'nose for news' represents the ability to track or perceive important information as if by scent. It means someone who is good at finding a particular thing, in this case, news.

Example: That journalist could ferret out a good story; he had a nose for news.

Answer: eye

To 'turn a blind eye' means to refuse to acknowledge something you know to be real. We do have a source of the origin of this phrase. It seems to stem from Admiral Horatio Nelson when he willfully disobeyed a signal to withdraw from a battle. Early in his Royal Navy career, Nelson had been blinded in one eye.

In 1801 Nelson's British fleet led an attack against the Danes and Norwegians at the Battle of Copenhagen. He and another British Admiral disagreed on tactics, and the other Commander (Sir Hyde Parker) signaled for Nelson to cease fighting. Nelson believed they could win if they persisted, so he held the glass to his blind eye and maintained that he could not see the signal.

Answer: shoulder

To put one's 'shoulder to the wheel' means to work hard and make a concentrated effort. The idiom relates to a time when American pioneers were moving west and used horse-drawn carts for transportation. The terrain was rough and the carts would often get mired in the mud or stuck in a rut.

In order to continue the journey, the men would have to lean against the wheel and use their physical strength to push the wheel out of the hole. Putting in a great deal of work to accomplish a difficult task, i.e., the expression 'shoulder to the wheel' is ancient, and can be found in one of Aesop's proverbs called "The Tale of Hercules and the Waggoner".