Pressing the Red Button Trivia Quiz

Answer: You are in debt

The first known usage of 'in the red' is from 'The Wise-Crack Dictionary' (Maines and Grant, 1926). It is thought to have originated from the practice of using red ink (as opposed to black ink, hence the phrase's opposite, 'in the black') to denote a financial loss or a debt on balance sheets.

Answer: A flight which takes off late at night, and arrives early in the morning

Although the term can also be used for any long-haul flight, in more specific terms, a red-eye flight takes off at night and arrives early in the morning the next day. The term comes from the bloodshot, tired eyes of exhausted passengers who have had very little sleep on the plane; according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it was coined in around 1968.

Answer: Red herring

The term is thought to have originated from an article by the journalist William Cobbett in 1807, in which he recounts using a kipper (a pickled herring, which turns a reddish-brown colour through preservation) as a means of distracting scenthounds from chasing a hare, by laying a false scent trail.

In turn, the literal red herring became a metaphor for a 'false trail' of words. One popular use in detective stories is to make a certain character look like a culprit to both the readers and the characters within the story, only to reveal that they were innocent all along.

Answer: A bull

This particular idiom didn't originate with bulls; 'Cato's Letters', from 1724, mentions using a red rag to distract pheasants, and according to Catherine Gore in 'Memories of a Peeress' (1837), Frenchmen could also be angered by the waving of a red rag.

The first known use of 'red rag to a bull' comes from Charlotte Yonge's 1893 novel 'The Pillars of the House'. It's worth noting, however, that bulls are actually colourblind; a toreador could use a blue cloth and still irritate the animal.

Answer: It is a sign that a storm is due

There is actually some justification for this proverb; a red sky is caused by red light being reflected by broken clouds, due to high pressure. If the sky is red in the morning, when the sun rises in the east (bear in mind that this proverb only applies in some parts of the world), the clouds are in the west and, thanks to the prevailing wind blowing eastwards, a storm is oncoming. However, with the sun setting in the west and the clouds in the east resulting in a red sky, the potential storm has passed, meaning the shepherd will not have to worry about his flock getting soaked the next day.

A variation on the proverb replaces 'shepherd' with 'sailor', another profession whose work is affected by weather conditions.

Answer: Red tape

One theory behind the idea of red tape being synonymous with excessive bureaucracy comes from the use of red tape by the administration of Charles V of Germany. The red tape was used to bind important dossiers together, while ordinary rope was used for less significant documents.

On the subject of Kafka and red tape, in 2006, the 'Telegraph' reported that French bureaucrats had created a 'Kafka Index', which measures the amount of hurdles - forms, phone calls and so on - a person must overcome in order to get something done, on a scale of one to one hundred.

Answer: Rolling out the red carpet

From heads of states getting off planes to celebrities on their way to the Oscars, the red carpet being rolled out to mark their route has become synonymous with VIP treatment. According to Christian Wolmar in 'Blood, Iron & Gold: How Railways Transformed the World', the phrase itself originated with the railroads in the early 20th century. At New York Station, a red carpet with the train company's insignia would be rolled out over the platform for passengers of 'Twentieth Century Limited', a luxury train which ran between Chicago and New York, to walk on as they boarded. This practice continued until 1968, when the train made its final journey.

The first known mention of a red carpet being rolled out for a ceremonial occasion is in the Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus' play 'Agamemnon', in which the titular hero's wife, Clytemnestra, lays out a red carpet for him to walk on, to welcome him home from the Trojan War. Agamemnon protests that as a human, he is not worthy of an honour normally reserved for gods. (However, that particular carpet may have been purple, a colour linked with nobility due to the high price of purple dye, with the colour being changed to red over the years.)

Answer: A brothel

If you're a fan of the Police, you might be familiar with the song 'Roxanne', in which Sting sings about a prostitute who 'puts on a red light' to go to work; a fitting choice of words, considering that red light districts are home to brothels, lapdancing clubs, and other similar venues.

One general theory behind the term is that it originated in the 1900s and stems from railwaymen visiting brothels and leaving their signalling lanterns on the porch to show that the business was in use, although Snopes points out that this may be an urban legend. (Some brothels in Amsterdam have carried on the tradition by using red lighting in their windows.) The writer Paul Iselin Wellman, meanwhile, has suggested that it may originate from the Red Light House, a saloon in a certain area of Dodge City, Kansas, that was known for prostitution.

Answer: Communism

The phrase 'reds under the beds' is generally believed to have stemmed from the 1950s, in the early stages of the Cold War, though some theories argue that the phrase originated much earlier, as a result of '20s and '30s cartoons of people looking for communists hiding under their beds. Propagandists and politicians such as Senator Joseph McCarthy, famous for his 'witch hunts' of suspected communists infiltrating Hollywood, capitalised on Western fears of the spread of communism. Wiktionary states that the idea of a 'red' hiding under one's bed is based on the old childhood fear of monsters under the bed, except the 'monster' in question is a communist, red being the colour most associated with communism.

Answer: Red-headed stepchild

The origin of the phrase 'red-headed stepchild' is unclear, and there are several theories as to how it came about. One theory is that in some parts of medieval Europe, children with red hair were believed to have been conceived while the mother was menstruating, and were therefore unclean.

There is also a theory based on the assumption that 'stepchild' is a euphemism for 'illegitimate', and comes from the paternity of a red-haired child born to non-redhead parents being called into question. Another theory suggests the 'stepchild' part comes from the resentment of children towards unwanted step-siblings. Add a little anti-ginger prejudice due to stereotypes about redheads having fiery tempers and so on, and the idea of the red-headed stepchild was born.