Meet The Missus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shrew

The term is derived from the Middle English word, "schrewe" meaning a wicked person. In Shakespeare's 16th century play, "The Taming Of The Shrew", society was very much male dominated, and any woman who was insubordinate towards her husband, or had her own point of view, was considered a shrew, also known as a "common scold".

Not only was this not encouraged by society, it was actually a criminal offense, punishable by being subjected to the ducking stool, or made to wear a form of pillory, known as a "shrew's fiddle", which entailed the offender's wrists being locked in front of them by means of a yoke around their neck. The offense of being a shrew or common scold remained on the statute books in England and Wales until 1967, although thankfully had not been acted upon for many years before that.

Answer: Battle Axe

Actual battle axes, of the non female type, were cheap looking, but had formidable destructive power, and this is where the term is believed to have originated. Originally, however, it was used to describe both men and women, up until the 1950s, when it became a more female orientated description.

A battle axe is a no nonsense wife who knows what she wants and will resort to bullying in order to meet her aim. Carrie Nation was a member of the pre-prohibition temperance movement and regularly attacked bars and other drinking establishments with a hatchet. She once proudly described herself as, "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like." Lady Astor was the first British MP to take her seat in the House of Commons in 1919, and is remembered for her long running feud with Winston Churchill, while Nurse Ratched is the power crazed nurse in Ken Kesey's novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962). The "Carry On" series of films, hugely popular in UK in the 1960s and 1970s, often featured battle axe characters, played by stars such as Peggy Mount, Hattie Jacques and Judith Furse.

Answer: True

The term "lawful blanket", meaning wife, is listed in Francis Grose's "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" which was published in 1811. Presumably the term is derived from being able to sleep with one's wife in good conscience, whereas sleeping with another man's wife or a prostitute would be somewhat frowned upon.

Answer: Ball And Chain

A ball and chain was commonly used during the heyday of the British Empire to prevent escape when prisoners were being moved or employed on work detail.
The phrase, used to mean wife, seems to have entered the language in the 1920s with author, Maxwell Bodenheim, known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians", being one of the earliest people to use it.

As the ball and chain was the forerunner to today's electronic tag, I wonder, will we at some point in the future refer to our wives as "tags"?

Answer: Hussy

The Middle English "hussy" became "huswif", which became housewife, a much better term to describe one's partner. Nowadays, "hussy" is used to describe a woman of loose sexual morals and was also the title of a 1980 film starring the wonderful Helen Mirren as a prostitute.

A trollop is a vulgar woman, with the origin of the word believed to come from Middle High German, as a description of a troll. A coquette, a word with French origins, is a flirtatious woman.

Answer: Xanthippe

Xanthippe was much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as forty years, and is described in Xenophon's "Symposium" as, "the hardest to get along with of all the women there are." She is further mentioned in Shakespeare's "Taming Of The Shrew", when Petruchio, talking of Katherina, says, "As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse" and she also gets a mention in Henry Fielding's "A History Of Tom Jones" (1749), Sir Walter Scott's "Rob Roy" (1817) and Anthony Trollope's "Doctor Thorne" (1858).

In more modern times, the TV show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (2015), features a rebellious, bratty teen named Xanthippe.

Answer: 'Er Indoors

"Minder", starring George Cole as Arthur Daley, and Dennis Waterman, who also wrote and sang the theme tune as Terry McCann, ran for 114 episodes. In almost every episode, Arthur would mention "'er indoors", but her name was never revealed, nor did she ever appear in an episode.

Answer: True

The origin of the expression seems uncertain, but it is thought that the word "buttock" was used to describe a woman, while the "tongue" part of the term comes from the tongue lashing often given by a "shrew".

This definition is taken from Francis Grose's "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" (1811). It should not be confused with "buttock and twang", which refers to a common prostitute, but not one that would pick pockets, or "buttock and file", which refers to a common prostitute who does also pick pockets.

Answer: Old Lady

Far from being a hippy phrase, the first recorded usage of "old lady" to describe one's wife is from 1599, and was a derogatory term used for when a wife began acting like one's mother.

In "Hey Joe" (1967), Hendrix sings, "I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady, You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man." and in Harry Chapin's track, titled "My Old Lady" (1977), he mentions, "You see, my old lady went and took herself, A young man last night".

Answer: Trouble and Strife

"Trouble and Strife" is one of the earliest Cockney rhyming slang phrases, dating back to the mid 19th century, and it refers, of course, to trouble and strife that wives heap upon us menfolk.

"Trouble and Strife" is certainly the best known phrase for wife, often shortened to "trouble", but there are others in use, such as "bread knife", "Duchess of Fife", usually shortened to "Duchess", and "bag for life", shortened to "bag".