I Got Nothing Here! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nothing to sneeze at

According to Gingersoftware.com and faqkids.com, in the 17th century, when snuff boxes were all the rage, people thought that sneezing cleared their head and was beneficial for their health. It became fashionable to sneeze at will, if one was able, to show disapproval, disdain, or boredom. If they were not able to sneeze at will, they used snuff or herbs to produce a sneeze.

The first written use of the "nothing to sneeze at" phrase was in a play by John Till Allingham, "Fortune's Frolic" which said "£5000 is a sum not to be sneezed at."

Answer: In nothing flat

Example: "He went through that Fun Trivia quiz in nothing flat."

Since my attempt at locating the origins of the phrase "in nothing flat" was unsuccessful, I am going to think that its origins are just what they seem, that the time it takes to do something is close to nothing. Phrases.org.uk speculates that the key is in the word flat. They say that the word flat means something that is clear and unmistakable. So to say someone is unmistakably fast, you can say they did a task in "no time, flat" or "nothing flat."

Answer: Nothing doing

The phrase "nothing doing" may be linked to "no dice" says the web site phrases.org.uk, and relates to the practice of hiding dice when caught gambling because no dice meant no evidence which meant an acquittal. That means that no evidence equates to "doing nothing" in court. Gambling with dice was illegal, but evidence had to be produced. If the policeman did not see the dice, and did not have the dice in evidence, then an acquittal could be expected. Incidences of dice-throwers swallowing dice were recorded, to avoid having the dice taken as evidence. "No dice" equated to "nothing doing," or the view that legally nothing had been done.

A weak link, but since "nothing doing" sounds like "not happening!" I will buy it!

Answer: Nothing to write home about

Quora.com says that the use of the phrase "nothing to write home about" was seen back in the mid-19th century. The site says that there is no point of origin that can be traced. From my searching, I concluded that the meaning of the phrase seems to be self-evident: that if a person is traveling or deployed or at camp, then a letter home (before email) included interesting events. If something is not fit to write home about, it does not make the grade as interesting.

Answer: Double or nothing

This is a literal phrase. Oxford Dictionary defines the phrase as a gamble which has an outcome of whether a loss or debt should be doubled or canceled. The "Nothing" part is the "canceled" part of the bet. Usually it is the loser of an original bet that utters the phrase. Urbandictionary.com explains the procedure: two people bet $10. Person #1 lost, and says "double or nothing." If person #1 wins, then the debt is canceled. If he loses, then he pays $20, which is double the original bet.

Answer: Here goes nothing

At English.stackexchange.com, the site's attempt at tracing the roots of the expression "Here goes nothing" garnered some opinions that the phrase may trace back to 1889's "Fibre & Fabric" publication with the quote, "Oh, throw yourself In a hole, and say here goes nothing." The meaning of that was that you should do a task and yet success was not expected.

Comments on that site differ, and some say "Here goes" is just being combined with "nothing" means "here goes my attempt; expect nothing here."

Answer: Nothing is further from the truth

One of my favorite scenes from the TV sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" has Sheldon Cooper deliver the line, "It is a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable, it is very wrong to say it is a suspension bridge." THAT is "nothing further from the truth" - to say a tomato is a suspension bridge! The phrase is pretty literal. If "nothing is further from the truth" then it is far away from being right. The farthest from truth would be a statement that is a lie, or one which is profoundly inaccurate.

(quote from the-big-bang-theory.com)

Answer: You ain't seen nothing yet

Researching this one got me a lot of talk about double negatives, and how this phrase does not translate to the expected "You have not seen nothing yet" which by grammar rules would mean that you HAVE seen something. The expression is slang and means "You have seen nothing, because here goes MY attempt and it will be best." Origins of the phrase just seem to be in trash-talking folk with poor grammar who say "wait! That's nothing! Watch this!"

(Thanks to English.stackexchange.com for the grammar discussion and opinions on meanings.)

Answer: Nothing to lose

The origins of this phrase may again be in gambling. If you have no stake in the game, you can afford to make a risky move, because there is nothing you will lose.

Perhaps one of the most famous uses of the phrase appears in "The Communist Manifesto", where Marx and Engels wrote, "Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch", which has been popularly (albeit inaccurately) rendered in English as "Workers of the World Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains." The use of the expression is to advise the workers of the world to revolt against unfair circumstances, because their bosses can't kill everyone and the worst that can happen is that they are back where they are now.

So the phrase may mean that you should do something risky, because failing can't hurt you. Of course, in Marx's time, things were different. There was always the possibility of torture as a means of deterrent for workers who dared to rebel.

Answer: Ain't nothing but a thing

There are many variants of "ain't nothing but a thing," such as "ain't nuthin' but a thang," which has more slang spelling but means the same. The expression has been been in usage and in movies for many years, such as in 1990's "Born on the Fourth of July." It means "don't worry about it" or "it's not important.
Translation in my view is simply that this is just another thing in life, and we should not stress about it.

Note, variants like "Ain't nuthin' but a G thang" (rap lyrics by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg) and "Ain't nuthin' but a She thang" (lyrics by Salt-n-Pepa) are different, and have slightly different meanings, and should not be used in the same context. I will let you research the variants yourself. They are kind of racy for my wholesome eye.