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ETYMOLOGIES *

etymology quiz

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know your etymologies

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ETYMOLOGIES *

ETYMOLOGIES *X means animportant person, or boss - sadly not anything really to do with Y, this popular slang term for a person of importance or authority probably originated in colonial India, where the Urdu word Y, meaning 'thing', was initially adopted by the British to mean something that was good or significant. The slang X' is a fine example of language from a far-away or entirely foreign culture finding its way into modern life and communications, in which the users have very awareness or appreciation of its different cultural origins.Big Cheese____(1)_____ was originally a parliamentary expression derived from the relative low influence of persons and issues from the ___(2)____ benches (the bench-seats where members sit in the House of Commons), as opposed to the ___(3)___ benches, where the leaders of the government and opposition sit.____(1)___has come to mean to have little or only observational involvement in something. Contrary to popular belief __(1)__ is not a car metaphor.

Take a Back SeatX is a fascinating expression and nothing to do with our normal association of the word __(2)__ with unpleasantness: X is a maritime expression, from the metaphor of a rope being payed out until to the __(1)__', which were the posts on the deck of a ship to which ropes were secured. When the rope had been extended to the __(2)__ end there was no more left. X is in fact where the last link of the anchor chain is secured to the vessel's chain locker, traditionally with a weak rope link. Nowadays it is attached through the bulkhead to a sturdy pin. X means to do or experience something awful up to and at the last, experiencing hostility.

To the bitter endX means have you nothing to say? - the most logical explanation to its origin is that it relates to the ____' whip used in olden days maritime punishments, in which it is easy to imagine that the victim would be rendered incapable of speech or insolence. A less likely, but no less dramatic suggested origin, is that it comes from the supposed ancient traditional middle-eastern practice of removing the _____ of liars and feeding them to ____.CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?X means trying to sell the unsaleable - Brewer's 1870 slang dictionary cites the British MP Bright describing Earl Russell's Reform Bill as a ___ horse' and all attempts to make it law like X'. The metaphor alludes to the idea of a ____ horse being incapable of working, no matter how much and hard it is whipped.flogging a dead horseDITLOIDS13 I A BD 13 in a baker's dozenT 3 W Mthe 3 wise men4 A 20 B B I A P4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie8 F A 2 T O A P O H8 fingers and 2 thumbs on a pair of hands

S O 69 B B A Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams

236 E of F236 Episodes of Friends

REBUSES

A walk around the block

Mercury Rising

Foreign film

Ship on the high seas

Separated at birth

Off on a tangent

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