Nothing New under the Sun--Just More Cliches Quiz

Answer: nose

"No skin off my nose" means "it's no concern of mine" or "it doesn't affect me". The phrase appears to have surfaced in the United States in the early twentieth century, and many believe that its origin is from the sport of boxing. The implication is that one is going to keep out of a situation that could mean trouble, and this reasoning is based on another idiomatic tendency to use the nose as an instrument for being unnecessarily curious. For example, a person who is prying into someone else's private affairs is being "nosy" or is "nosing around in someone else's business".

The claim that this expression comes from a cult of individuals who required people to stick their noses through a hole in a door has no evidence to support it. This amusing explanation argues that individuals who did not have a particular mark on their noses would have their noses cut by the "gatekeeper" after they poked them through the hole.

Answer: an allegorical fable concerning Truth and Falsehood

According to an old story of ambiguous origin, Truth and Falsehood were journeying when they decided to go for a swim. They disrobed and left their clothes on the shore of a river. Falsehood came out of the water first and deceptively decided to put on Truth's clothes. Truth, on the other hand, refusing to be seen in the clothes of Falsehood, decided to continue his journey naked. Obviously, for something false to be believed, it must be dressed in the guise of truth.

However, the truth needs nothing more than itself.

Answer: a counterfeit coin

The rap in the phrase "not worth a rap" refers to essentially a counterfeit coin that fraudulently circulated in Ireland as a halfpenny during the 1700s. The rap succeeded for a while as acceptable currency as real money was scarce. The expressions "without a rap" and "don't care a rap" also came into frequent use during the same time period.

Answer: The New Testament of the Bible

In the book of Mark, Chapter 5, of the King James Version of the Bible, Jesus encounters "a man with an unclean spirit". In the ninth verse, Jesus asks the man, "What is thy name?" The man replies, "My name is Legion; for we are many". Jesus casts the demons out of the man and into a herd of swine (thus is created "deviled ham"--my weak attempt at humor).

Of course, the word "legion" comes from a much older Latin word that means "to gather", and a unit of as many as 6,000 gathered troops was referred to as a "legion" in the Roman army. Eventually, the word "legion" came to mean a large number of people with a common purpose.

Some have argued that the story of Jesus and his casting the evil spirits into the swine is meant to be allegorical. Given this interpretation, "Legion" refers to the Roman forces that occupy Palestine, which is represented by the man who is possessed and who now lives within a graveyard (the remains of a society or kingdom that once thrived). When Jesus confronts Legion, Legion's greatest fear is that they will be forced to leave this land. Then the unclean spirits are cast out of the man and into pigs, which are considered unclean animals for consumption. The idea is that Jesus is seen as a powerful king or leader who will rid Palestine of the occupying outsiders and return Judea to its former glory.

Answer: I'm alert, full of energy, and constantly working.

"No flies on me" is an expression meant to suggest that one is "wide awake, paying attention, working or moving with vigor, and taking advantage of any opportunities as soon as they present themselves". It is derived from a farmer or cattleman's image; flies settle more on a standing horse or cow than on one that is moving briskly.

The idiom seems to have originated in Australia or Great Britain in the mid-1800s and migrated to the United States by the end of that century. The "Detroit Free Press" offered a definition in 1888: "There ain't no flies on him signifies that he is not quiet long enough for moss to grow on his heels, that he is wide awake".

Answer: sweeps clean

"A new broom sweeps clean" means that a person new to a particular position or rank makes a great number of changes. Usually, a newly elected or appointed individual removes much of what was old and perhaps not working very well--both people and policies--and brings into the situation new people and new ideas.

The proverb is a rather old one and dates to as far back as at least the sixteenth century. It seems to have referred literally to the efficacy of a new broom contrasted with an old one.

In 1546, John Heyward wrote, "Some thereto said, the greene brome swepith cleene".

Answer: a boast

The use of the word "crack" in the expression refers to a much older meaning, which is "a boast" or "to boast". "To crack something up" once meant "to build up something's reputation through boasting or excessive praise". The use of the expression "not all it's cracked up to be" dates as far back as at least the 1400s.

Answer: neither rhyme nor reason

If something is done for "neither rhyme nor reason", then it is an action that lacks all sensibleness; it is unsuitable for either entertainment or instruction; it lacks both aesthetic and practical value. There are many entertaining stories about the origin of this expression. One of them supports the English Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser as the creator of the expression.

In the late sixteenth century, Spenser published "The Faerie Queene", which he wrote to flatter Queen Elizabeth I and gain her as a patron.

The story goes that he was promised 100 pounds for his work, but the Lord High Treasurer William Cecil considered the amount ridiculously high for a mere poem. Spenser's payment was delayed, and he is supposed to have written the following quatrain to inquire of his promised reward: "I was promis'd on a time, / To have a reason for my rhyme: / But from that time unto this season, / I had neither rhyme or reason".

Others credit Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535) with the expression's origin. According to this story, an author asked More for a critical opinion of his book.

More read it and told the author that he should make a poem out of it instead. The author took More's advice, rewrote his work in verse, and brought it back to More for another critique. More is supposed to have said, "Ay! ay! That will do, that will do. 'Tis rhyme now, but before it was neither rhyme nor reason". As entertaining as these stories are, they lose credibility as explanations of the phrase's origin because the earliest use of the expression occurs at a date before either existed. Around 1460, John Russell wrote the following in "The Boke of Nurture": "As for ryme or reson, ye forewryter was not to blame, / For as he founde hit afore hym, so wrote he ye same" ("ye" should be pronounced as "the").

Answer: a nine-day wonder

A "nine-day wonder" or "nine days' wonder" is anything new that gains much attention iniitially but then quickly loses its appeal after only a few days. Expressions that mean something similar are "a flash in the pan" or "a shooting star"--perhaps even "a one-hit wonder". Certainly, "nine-day wonder" is a curious, if not odd, phrase. People often wonder why the number nine is used. Often, a number is picked for alliterative purposes, but that is not the case here. A popular number, such as seven, or a round figure, such as ten, would seem a more appealing number to select. Perhaps, however, the oddness of the number nine fits exactly in an expression meant to suggest the oddness of something or someone that holds everyone's interest intensely but then only momentarily.

Some have sought to use the publication "Kemps Nine Daies VVonder", written by William Kemp in 1600, as the source and origin of this expression. Kemp took a bet that he could dance from London to Norwich, and he claimed to have achieved such a feat in only nine days (although in reality these nine days were spread out among two weeks). As many doubted that he had actually accomplished what he claimed, he published an account to prove that he did indeed. However, the problem is that this expression existed before Kemp's feat--in fact, long before Kemp's feat. Some variation of the phrase was being used at least as far back as the early 1300s as is made evident by the Old English "Harley Lyrics". Furthermore, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in "Troilus and Criseyde" in 1374 a similar expression using the word "night" instead of "day": "For wonder last but nine night". Also, William Shakespeare creates a joke with the phrase in his history play "Henry VI (Part 3)", which is believed to have been written in 1591: "Gloucester: 'That would be ten days' wonder at the least.' Clarence: 'That's a day longer than a wonder lasts'".

Answer: the grindstone

To hold one's "nose to the grindstone" refers to the self-discipline and determination required by a person to continue to work hard at a particular task, and to hold someone else's "nose to the grindstone" is to compel someone else to complete a difficult task, particularly when that someone else does not really wish to complete it.

A grindstone was and still is a thick disk of abrasive stone mounted on a machine so that it revolves and therefore grinds, sharpens, or polishes an object held to the stone's surface. Anyone who literally put his or her nose against a revolving grindstone would experience a quick and painful abrasion; thus, anyone who continued to hold his or her nose to such an object must certainly be disciplined and determined beyond belief.

This image may have been all that was necessary for someone to coin the expression. However, there are a couple of origin stories. One explains that millers would use grindstones to crush grain. However, a revolving grindstone would create enough friction to sometimes burn the grain so that it was no longer pleasant to consume.

The miller would, therefore, put his nose quite close to the stone to smell the grain to see whether it was burning. This explanation is usually dismissed by most scholars because millers usually referred to their grindstones as millstones. Furthermore, as most of the earliest written recorded expressions refer to "holding" a nose to the grindstone, it seems unlikely that the expression would have been derived from observing a miller since a miller would need to put his nose toward a grindstone only momentarily to smell the grain. In 1532, John Grith published "A Mirrour or Glasse to Know Thyselfe", and in it he wrote, "This Text holdeth their noses so hard to the grindstone, that it clean disfigureth their faces". Thus, most scholars hold with the other story, which involves knife grinders, who when sharpening blades would often bend very close to the grindstones to hold the knives tightly against the revolving abrasive surfaces for great lengths of time. Some knife grinders would even lie down face first over the stones because of the continuous hard labor required.