All You Need is Anger Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spleen

To vent one's spleen means to express anger, usually by shouting, rather than leaving it pent up inside. The Greek "four-humour" classification of emotions associated the spleen with black bile, and melancholy. This has evolved from just describing a morose temperament to being associated with the expressions of anger such a disposition often produces.

Answer: Snake

The expression "mad as a snake" presumably has its origins in the aggressive attacks made by Australia's snakes on early settlers who often disturbed the snakes while clearing land. The fact that so many native species are venomous made their behaviour all the more intimidating, so it's a good idea to avoid being too close to someone who is as mad as a snake.

More recently, the expression has evolved to be "mad as a cut snake" - if they get angry when just disturbed, imagine their fury if you accidentally injured one!

Answer: Bone

"I've got a bone to pick with you" is an ominous start to the conversation, especially if the encounter was meant to be a social occasion such as a family reunion (which is the kind of event where the long-suppressed feelings of anger that might lead to the confrontation do often surface).

This opening may be followed by putting a flea in their ear, and getting right up their nose, until they lose their head and it's on for young and old.

Answer: Grind it

The image shows a block splitter, which is a kind of axe. When you have an axe to grind, in British usage, you are upset about something, and want to get it sorted out. In American usage, the phrase is also used to mean that your behaviour has an ulterior motive. Used in that sense, the phrase is attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

It then seems to have crossed the Atlantic and gained a slightly different meaning.

Answer: Mouth

The phrase "foaming at the mouth" raises images of rabid dogs, whose symptoms often include excessive salivation that may appear to produce foam around the mouth. Since their bites are extremely dangerous, it is best to stay well away from them. If a person is foaming at the mouth in anger, it is probably a good idea to steer clear until things settle down.

Answer: Roof

The phrase suggests a state of agitation so strong that wild gesticulation could lead to a damaged ceiling. When the price of a commodity increases rapidly, it is also said to go through the roof. When the cost of petrol went up by thirty cents a litre between the morning when I didn't have time to buy it and the evening when I stopped to refuel, I went through the roof about the fact that the price had gone through the roof.

Answer: Hot under the collar

The presumed origin of this idiom is that anger often leads to increased blood flow, and a sense of warmth in body parts. If you're wearing a tight collar, the sensation around your neck might be particularly noticeable. Another description for your state of mind might be hot and bothered.

Answer: Spit the dummy

While all of these phrases can be used to describe various states of anger, someone whose anger leads them to act irrationally, like a child throwing a temper tantrum, is often said to have spit the dummy (especially in Australia). The phrase often carries a suggestion that their behaviour was unjustified, or at least an overreaction to the situation. They might also be said to be throwing a hissy fit, or having a cow.

One has to wonder how the dummy in the image ended up hanging from a tree - possible the result of a spectacular dummy-spit?

Answer: Head

If you are like a bear with a sore head, you are in a grumpy mood, and likely to snap at those around you for reasons that wouldn't ordinarily be irritating enough to merit that response. I haven't been able to find a definitive reason why the sore head is particularly appropriate - I would think that a bear with any sore body part would be grumpy, and well avoided.

It is possible that the expression may be intended to combine the known touchiness of bears with that of someone experiencing a hangover and associated headache.

Answer: Red

Someone who is extremely angry might be said to be seeing red. The increased blood pressure associated with a state of intense anger often leads to a reddening of the face, along with the adoption of a fixed glare. This characteristic appearance of anger could be the source of the expression.

Another, more imaginative origin, has also been proposed. It may be a reference to the use of a red cape to anger the bull during a bullfight. The fact that bulls don't actually see the colour, and are simply responding to its motion, doesn't detract from the possible derivation. Another anger-related phrase that refers to bullfighting is saying that something is "like a red rag to a bull", first used by Charlotte Mary Yonge in "The Pillars of the House", published in 1873.