Clichés Taken Literally Trivia Quiz

Answer: My breathing is lessened in intensity

I have always been clear on the fact that "bated breath" referred to a state of tense expectation and/or apprehension, but I had always assumed that to "bate" your breath was to pause in breathing, i.e. to hold your breath. Learning my error led me to more critically consider other clichés. What is dudgeon, anyway? I say to my shame that I had always assumed a "petard" was a yardarm on a ship.

Answer: Jetsam

According to strict maritime usage, jetsam was that which was jettisoned, thrown overboard from a ship. Flotsam was the material from a shipwreck. Very strictly speaking, flotsam should be floating. To qualify as jetsam, some maintain an item should have washed ashore or sunk to the bottom.

Answer: Italy

In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon thereby provoking civil war. The Rubicon marked the boundary of Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar was, at this time, the provincial governor of Gaul, and Roman law forbade his crossing the boundary with his troops.

A Roman historian quotes Caesar as shouting just before he led his troops across the stream, "The die is cast," (or Latin words to that effect). Was "the die is cast" a cliché when Caesar uttered it, I wonder.

Answer: An explosion

The word "petard" refers to an explosive device used to breach gates or a wall. If a petard were to explode as your enemy was detonating it, you would have the pleasure of seeing your enemy blown up into the air, i.e. hoisted by his own petard. The Old French term, "peter", from which petard derived, meant to pass intestinal gas. ("Nannanut" put me on to this great word.) The phrase "hoist by your own petard" seems to originate from "Hamlet" where we find "Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard..." in Act III, scene iv.

Answer: Pliant

Dictionary.com informs us that "lively", "vivacious" and "gay" are merely archaic definitions for buxom; whereas "obedient", "yielding" and pliant are definitions that have become obsolete. It seems that being turned into a cliché has made a very rich word poorer. I suspect other examples of this happening would not be difficult to find. (The root of pliant is "ply", meaning "to fold".)

Answer: A piece of cloth being stretched

The nails on the frame on which cloth was stretched were termed "tenterhooks". The origin is from the Latin "tendere" meaning "to stretch".

Answer: Dice

Hi jinks have become synonymous with frolic and revelry, typically of the sort that strains custom and propriety, if not law. Drinking is not infrequently involved. High Jinks, as described by Sir Walter Scott, involved throwing the dice at a drinking party to determine who would be compelled to perform some undignified act (such as reciting "scurrilous" verse) under threat of penalty. Playing cards and pumpkins were not required.

However, fans of Terry Pratchett will recognize that two small bits of wood and a fresh egg are sufficient for the performance of the Rite of AshkEnte to summon Death. (Should this last bit of trivia both baffle and intrigue you, I suggest the immediate purchase and reading of "Mort", by Terry Prachett.)

Answer: A dagger hilt

Macbeth, speaking to his dagger after killing the king, said, "I see thee still, and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood..." This is the only occurrence of the word "dudgeon" in Shakespeare's plays, a fact that I find surprising. It strikes me as such a Shakespearian word.

Some suggest that a person in "high dudgeon" is one ready to strike with a metaphorical dagger. (I have always distrusted metaphors). Although one Elliott Moreton has claimed that the term "low dudgeon" is never used, a "google" search of this term proves that it is, in fact, in use.

Answer: Sitting in the shade

To take umbrage is to take offense, offense being one of the meanings for "umbrage". The word derives from the Latin "umbra", meaning "shade". "Foliage" is another obsolete definition of "umbrage". My hint was an allusion to another word derived from "umbra", namely "umbrella".

Answer: An anatomic reference to the ventricles (main pumping chambers) of your heart

The "cochleae cordis" was the Latin term for the ventricles of the heart. Cockles are also mollusks, although the use of cockleshells by the Germanic tribes was pure fabrication. Cockles are bivalved, heart-shaped mollusks that can alternately bend and straighten their muscular "foot" causing them to jump.