A Wild Goose Chase Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The term wild goose chase was first used in England in the 1500s, and - believe it or not - had to do with horses. It was first mentioned by English writer Gervase Markham in his 1593 book, "A Discource of Horsmanshippe". One horse would take off along an unlikely path, and others would follow along the exact same route like a flock of geese. William Shakespeare used the term in "Romeo and Juliet" (c. 1592) to describe an unpredictable pursuit.

Did you know that a snipe is actually a bird? It lives in marshes and is so quick that it is very difficult to hunt or even spot. Its use as an idiom for wild goose chase originated in the 1840s as a practical joke. Some people took a newcomer out in the dark woods with a bag and told him to catch a snipe, a task that was utterly impossible to complete. It was so impossible, in fact, that over time people began to think that even the bird was fictional.

Back in the day people danced a lot, and to lead a merry dance meant just that. During the Middle Ages, people would do elaborate line dances and follow the movements of the leader. Many times the dance was difficult to follow and exhausting for participants. By the 1500s, however, the term began to mean that a person was being led through trouble or some type of deception.

In 1500s England, one of the rites to initiate a newcomer was called a sleeveless errand, with sleeveless meaning having no point. They would be sent to find something that did not exist - like striped paint, for example. By the 1600s the term had been changed to Fool's Errand, meaning to trick someone. Clergyman Edmund Hickeringill wrote in 1705, "Did not the Pope send all the Princes in Christendom upon a Fools Errand, to gain the Holy Land....", which, of course, was a correct usage of the term.

The use of the term fruitless in the context of wild goose chase dates back to approximately 1340 when the word was used to describe something that was not profitable. It was used to describe plants that did not produce fruit. By the early 1500s, it was also used to describe something that was barren.

Likewise, the term wasted effort is a combination of words that together mean wild goose chase. There is evidence that the words have been paired together since the 1300s to describe the idea of using resources that do not have any or much of a return.

People have probably been using strong scented items for training animals for centuries, but in 1807 William Cobbett used the term red herring, a fish that was soaked in brine and then smoked, in a newspaper article about politics which described using the smell of the fish to throw hunting dogs off the trail of a rabbit. After that the term was used to describe a false clue or activity that was meant to trick people.

Apparently even the ancient Romans wasted time. The philosopher Seneca wrote about it in a letter sometime around 45 AD, where he said, "It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it". Shakespeare took an interesting stance on the topic when he wrote "I wasted time and now doth time waste me", in "Richard II". So the idea of spending time uselessly has been around for quite a while. Over time the phrase came to mean a task that was not productive or didn't have a good result.

I think the phrase pointless assignment has been in existence as long as there have been teachers and students! But the word pointless did not originate until c. 1330, and then it was used to describe a blunt sword! The more figurative use of pointless - having no effect or purpose - was used by the 1700s.

Edward A. Pollard published a book in 1866 called "The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates", in which he tried to present his beliefs regarding why the South's was defeated in the American Civil War. The term was used by many writers to indicate that the South had no hope to win a war against the industrially superior North.

In fact, many people believed the war to be a lost cause, or a hopeless endeavor. That term began to appear in the 1500s, and was just a simple combination of two words - hopeless, meaning no prospect for success, and endeavor, meaning duty. There was an old Dutch term, "verloren hoop" or lost troop, that tied in with a military undertaking that had no hope to succeed.

All of the incorrect answers, in one way or another, tell people that an individual wants to be alone.