All Kinds of Trivia

All Kinds of Trivia Archive

	A Chicken In Every Pot

	This synonym for prosperity is often attributed to Herbert Hoover, and... [Trivia]

A Hotbed

Hotbed was originally a gardener's term for a glass-covered bed of soil... [Trivia]

	Presidential Nicknames

	George Washington was of course The Father... [Trivia]

Alibi Ike

Someone who is always making excused or inventing alibis is called... [Trivia]

	An Ad for Argonauts

	Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of... [Trivia]

Bump Off

This underworld slang for to kill or murder may have its origins... [Trivia]

Butterfingers

Although the word butterfingers – used for someone who drops things or can’t hold... [Trivia]

Christian

The first usage of Christians for followers of Christ is recorded in the Bible... [Trivia]

Cowabunga!

Cowabunga! or Cowabunga Dude! used as a general cry of delight... [Trivia]

Cricket

In 1622, when villagers in Boxgrove, England near the cathedral city of Chichester... [Trivia]

Dago

An offensive word that may derive from the name of a saint. H.L. Mencken... [Trivia]

Eeeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo

Look in the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Second, Mathews’ Dictionary of Americanisms... [Trivia]

	Evolution of the Broom

	Imagine those people on the TV trying to sell this new fangled... [Trivia]

	Fairy Rings

	Fairies, dancing on the spot were once thought to cause... [Trivia]

Flake

Flake has meant "a packet of cocaine" since the 1920s, but it first... [Trivia]

Hogan’s Brickyard

Hogan’s Brickyard - Goats don’t eat tin cans – they eat the paper off them – but these animals... [Trivia]

	Hollywood

	The film capital of the world, laid out in 1887, is probably named... [Trivia]

Hoodwink

Blindman's buff was known as the "hoodwink game" in... [Trivia]

	Hot Dog

	in about 1900, the franks were dubbed hot dogs by that prolific... [Trivia]

Ishmael

Call me Ishmael begins Herman Melville’s Moby Dick... [Trivia]

Jacob’s Ladder

The biblical Jacob (Gen. 28:12) saw a ladder reaching to heaven in a dream... [Trivia]

Josh

Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-85) wrote his deliberately misspelled crackerbox... [Trivia]

Landing At Inchon

In a surprise attack, U. S. forces landed; but the invasion... [Trivia]

Make One’s Hair Stand On End

Surprisingly, this metaphor isn’t recorded before 1530, in a French... [Trivia]

Micah Rood's Apple

This apple has streaks of red running through its white flesh... [Trivia]

Mickey Mouse Rules

One theory holds that World War II U.S. Navy Military... [Trivia]

	Mistletoe - The Kissing Plant

	Kissing under the mistletoe might not seem so romantic to... [Trivia]

More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

There are more ways of killing a cat than choking... [Trivia]

Myrmidons of the Law

When the inhabitants of the island of Aegina were wiped out by a plague... [Trivia]

Philanderer

Our word for a male flirt who makes love without serious intentions comes... [Trivia]

Pickle

A sour pickle is the last thing anyone would expect to be named... [Trivia]

Pony Express

The Pony Express, more often called simply... [Trivia]

President Killed By Sore Loser's Bullet

Born in a log cabin in the Midwest, he was... [Trivia]

Show A Leg - Shake A Leg

Nautical in origin and from the early 19th century, show a leg means to get up frpm bed... [Trivia]

Six of One and a Half Dozen of Another

This expression may have been invented by Captain Frederick Marryat in The Pirates... [Trivia]

Small Fry

Harriet Beecher Stowe introduced small fry (“smaller fry”) to describe children... [Trivia]

	The First Department Store

	Hercules Poirot would have to enlist C. Auguste Dupin, Inspector Maigret... [Article]

The Hair Of The Dog That Bit You

The Hair Of The Dog That Bit You... Cures like, similia similibus curantur, the Romans believed... [Article]

The Magic Flower

No one knows the name of the magic flower of Greek legend... [Trivia]

	The Mayflower

	The Mayflower, the former wine ship that transported the founding fathers... [Trivia]

To Curry Favor

These words are literally meaningless. What does currying or brushing favor have to do... [Trivia]

To Have Someone Over a Barrel

The sense of this Americanism is that the person over the barrel... [Trivia]

To Make a Mountain Out Of a Molehill

To Make a Mountain Out Of a Molehill - In his “Ode to a Fly” the Greek satirical Lucian conveyed this same... [Trivia]

	Pass The Buck

	For less than a buck here are two good theories about the origins of this slang word for a... [Trivia]

To Put On The Spot

The ace of spades is a symbol of death to the superstitious in many lands... [Trivia]

Tommygun

The infamous “chopper,” so often hidden in violin cases, in gangster movies, takes... [Trivia]

Woolworth’s

Woolworth’s - America’s first 5 and 10 cent store (1,081) of them), named after... [Trivia]

	Yellow Rose of Texas

	The yellow rose of Texas, which is part of that state's folklore... [Trivia]

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All About Stuff An Online Magazine with Articles and Trivia on a Variety of Subjects

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