Wonder Where That Expression's From? Quiz

Answer: Mercuric Nitrate

Mercuric Nitrate is a inorganic mercury compound that was used in the 19th Century to 'carrot' or lay felt in the making of hats. The use of the compound caused hat-makers to experience tremors and a physical distubance as the result of mercury poisoning, essentially a nerve toxin.

The effects affected such a number of people in the industry that it was subsequently banned. Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) used the unfortunate circumstances in the hat industry as the name of one of the characters from his story 'Alice in Wonderland', the Mad Hatter who holds the tea party that the White Rabbit leads Alice to.

Answer: A Brass Pad

A nautical term dating back to the days when cannons were still utilized onboard fighting sailing ships. Iron cannon balls (also called 'nuts') would be stacked next to each cannon on a brass pad called the 'Monkey'. When the balls were affected by severe cold, the iron and brass would contract at different rates, causing the pile of cannon balls to fall.

Answer: Daniel

Based on Daniel 5:5 and 5:6 which reads 'immediately the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the {lampstand;} and the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed {him;} his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.' Daniel is asked to interpret the writing for the king when his other advisors fail. Daniel informs the king that the writing says: 'This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an {end;} TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found {wanting;} PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.' The king is slain the same night, hence 'the writing is on the wall' has come to be seen as an ominous warning.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Scene 2: Juliet: 'Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.'

Answer: Dickens

Charles Dickens created the expression in 'The Pickwick Papers' (1836). The quotation is as follows:'Well, if I knew as little of life as that, I'd eat my hat and swallow the buckle.'

An earlier, and similar, use of the phrase can be found in Thomas Brydges' 1797 'Homer Travestie (A Burlesque Translation of Homer)'.

Answer: To be dragged underneath a ship and up the other side

The delinquent sailor would have a rope attached to them that was slung under the ship. The sailor would then be hauled from one side of the ship under the keel under the water and up the other side of the ship. This caused severe injuries or death to the sailor.

However, doubts have been expressed as to whether the punishment was actually used or whether it was a story to frighten new sailors.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

The poem was entitled 'Democracy Unveiled' (1805) which was an attack on Jefferson and other Democrat leaders. The poem was penned by Thomas G. Fessenden, under his pseudonym 'Christopher Caustic'. The quotation itself reads: 'He talketh big words to congress and threateneth to overturn their apple-cart.'

Answer: John Fitzherbert

The exact quotation is: 'The dogge must lerne when he is a whelpe, or els it wyl not be, for it is harde to make an olde dogge to stoupe.'

Answer: A Tax

The word actually derives from an old Anglo-Saxon word 'sceot' which essentially meant 'money put into a general fund'. It referred, therefore, to a tax, one which was generally levied upon individuals, the amount depending upon their ability to pay. To be 'Scot free' meant to be relieved of the burden of having to pay the tax. It was referred to in the Charter of 1066 as 'Scotfre'.

Answer: Robert Burns

Although Walter Scott came up first with a very similar expression, he was not the first author of the above phrase. Walter Scott wrote 'succeed or die trying' in 1577, but it was Robert Burns who penned 'Lay the proud usurpers {low!;} Tyrants fall in every {foe!;} Liberty's in every {blow!;} Let us dor or die!' in his poem 'Scots Wha Hae'. Tennyson followed suit later in his famous poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', where he wrote 'Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do or die.'