Word origins

Question 1

The term ‘Nosey Parker’ derives from…

Answer 1

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury 1559-1575

Question 2

The word “curfew” comes from

Answer 2

the Old French ‘cover fire’; a rule established by William the Conqueror who outlawed fires after 8pm.

Question 3

Meander comes from the

Answer 3

menderes river which winds through Turkey.

Question 4

Chair of a meeting was named because

Answer 4

he was important enough to get one. Most had benches (which is where we get banquet from)

Question 5

Room and board

Answer 5

Dining table used to a board that rested on the knees

Question 6

Friday

Answer 6

Frig, Woden’s wife

Question 7

Wednesday

Answer 7

Woden

Question 8

Melancholic

Answer 8

Greek for “melas khole”, meaning black bile. One of Galen’s 4 personality types along with (Phlegmatic, Choleric and Sanguine).

Question 9

Nave

Answer 9

comes from navis, Latin for ship

Question 10

Quarantine comes from ___

Answer 10

40 days and nights; comes from an Italian variant (seventeenth-century Venetian) of ‘quaranta giorni’, meaning forty days, the period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic.

Question 11

Ketchup comes from ___

Answer 11

Chinese word for fish brine

Question 12

Chop Suey

Answer 12

Means odds and ends

Question 13

Turn up for the books

Answer 13

Stroke of luck for bookmakers. When an unbacked horse wins.

Question 14

“Pooling” money/resources

Answer 14

Poule is french for chicken. Money in a pot, first to hit the chicken wins.

Question 15

Upshot

Answer 15

Upshot is the shot that decides an archery contest (up = end, as in “time is up”)

Question 16

Hot dogs

Answer 16

Americans thought sausages made from dog meat, hence hot dogs

Question 17

Toxic comes from ___

Answer 17

Toxic comes from Greek word for archery because arrows used to be dipped in poison

Question 18

Held in check ___

Answer 18

comes from chess

Question 19

Companion

Answer 19

is someone you share your panis, or bread with

Question 20

Naan

Answer 20

comes from naked because unlike meat it wasn’t cooked covered in ashes

Question 21

Ciabatta

Answer 21

is Italian for slipper

Question 22

Mark

Answer 22

comes from Mars

Question 23

In turkey turkeys are called

Answer 23

hindis

Question 24

Give them the cold shoulder

Answer 24

is a cut of meat

Question 25

Humble pie

Answer 25

used to be umble pie (worst parts of the deer)

Question 26

Fox glove

Answer 26

was a folks glove, old word for fairy

Question 27

“Hey man”

Answer 27

is a reaction to the racist “hey boy”

Question 28

Dandelions

Answer 28

Lions teeth

Question 29

Corsairs

Answer 29

were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French crown

Question 30

Happy originally meant ___

Answer 30

lucky, and is related to words sent “happen” and “perhaps”, suggesting chance.

Question 31

Mastadon

Answer 31

‘nipple teeth’

Question 32

Rags to riches

Answer 32

Benjamin Franklin’s 18th century paper manufacturing business literally turned rags into riches

Question 33

Lego

Answer 33

play in Danish

Question 34

Origin of lectern, lecture

Answer 34

In Latin, lego came to mean to pick out the letters on a page, and so “read” - giving us words such as lecture and lectern.

Question 35

Focus

Answer 35

Fireplace; At first in the middle of the floor and later by the wall, the hearth - focus, in Latin - has from the earliest times been the point on which a household’s life centred.

Question 36

Copper bottomed

Answer 36

Put on ships to stop worms and barnacles sticking; Copper and iron, when immersed in a suitable electrolytic fluid, like fruit juice or, at a pinch, seawater, form an electrochemical couple and the arrangement becomes a serviceable galvanic battery. Over time, the iron is eaten away to nothing by the electrochemical action. Copper nails were the answer.

Question 37

All at sea

Answer 37

Any ship that was out of sight of land was in an uncertain position and in danger of becoming lost.

Question 38

A second is called a second because

Answer 38

it is the 2nd division of the hour by 60, the 1st division being a minute.

Question 39

Pipe dream

Answer 39

originates from the fantasies induced by smoking opium

Question 40

Lemur

Answer 40

spirit of the dead; Lemur comes from the Latin for ghosts, Lemurēs, because of their ghost-like faces.

Question 41

Acid test

Answer 41

nitric acid on gold

Question 42

Silver screen

Answer 42

silver compounds in celluloid

Question 43

Bakers dozen

Answer 43

The bread laws introduced a £10 fine is underweight. Safer to add a cdream ouple more => baker’s dozen.