Just for fun - most answers gets 10 pnts!!?

Question

Here are some origins of different things from expressions to products, names, and inventions. There's a bunch of them here. Whoever gets the most right, I'll give the points to. I'll put up the answers later on today so anyone who wants the answers can have them!

Cliché/Expressions

John Dennis, an unsuccessful playwright in the 1700’s, did create a successful approximation of thunder as a sound effect. His play, Applius and Virginia, was a dismal failure, but his sound machine managed a successful debut. Soon after the early cancellation of his play, he happened to be attending a performance of Macbeth at the same theatre. During the play he discovered this rival company was using his thunder prop. He jumped up and shouted this phrase, which is now used when someone wrongfully takes credit for another’s work.

Answer 1

Stealing his thunder

Bakers Dozen

Doubting Thomas

drawing the short straw

coca cola

Answer 2

This body of water is so named because it contains no living organisms due to its high salt content.

dead sea

Of the seven, four were named after Scandinavian gods, one was named after the Roman god Saturn, and the other two were known to belong to the Sun and the Moon.

tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday are named after the scandinavian gods tiw, woden, thor, and frigga.

When Captain Cook first landed on this continent in the Pacific Ocean, he asked the aboriginal tribe of the Endeavour River what name they gave to the strange looking animal that in habited the land. The natives in their language responded “I don’t know”, which Cook assumed was the name they gave to this marsupial.

kangaroo

Answer 3

NAMES;

Before the written word, there was oral history. The true origin of names would coincide with the dawn of language in our species. One can only conjecture how early man used names. The usage of names evolved over the ages. The bible starts with Adam naming his companion Woman, and then Eve. He then named all of the animals that were brought to him (Genesis 2:19-20). The Hebrews and other early cultures gave first names that described some attribute of the person: David and Ruth both mean "friend." Early times were mostly agrarian societies, with people spread out over the land. Only first names were used to differentiate between people, even between clans. If they needed more specifics, they tacked on their place of birth, such as "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Leonardo da Vinci." Eventually, these first names were used over and over again, forming a pool of specific names parents could use - and only use - there were no celebrity babies named "Apple" (Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter) or "Pilot Inspektor" (Jason Lee's son).

HALLOWEEN;

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

CHRISTMAS;

The origin of Christmas is presented beautifully in the well-known biblical account of Luke: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:1-11).

CHRISTMAS TREE;

The modern custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be traced to 16th century Germany, though neither an inventor nor a single town can be identified as the sole origin for the tradition, which was a popular merging of older traditions mentioned above; in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539, the church record mentions the erection of a Christmas tree. Yet, the first officially recorded Christmastree ever was erected in Tallinn, Estonia, in year 1444. It was erected by the Brotherhood of Blackheads (local merchants guild) to celebrate the birth Christ. It was decorated with red and white roses. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small fir was decorated with apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers, and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas day.[7] Another early reference is from Basel, where the tailor apprentices carried around town a tree decorated with apples and cheese in 1597. During the 17th century, the custom entered family homes. One Strasbourg priest, Johann Konrad Dannerstuart, complains about the custom as distracting from the Word of God.

By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles are attested from the late 18th century. The Christmas tree remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long time. It was regarded as a Protestant custom by the Catholic majority along the lower Rhine and was spread there only by Prussian officials who were moved there in the wake of the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years. In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d'Orléans.



The Queen's Christmas tree at Osborne House. The engraving republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia, December 1850In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the time of the personal union with Hanover, by George III's Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz but the custom did not spread much beyond the royal family. Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with the custom. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote, "After dinner...we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room...There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees...". After her marriage to her German cousin, Prince Albert, the custom became even more widespread. In 1847, Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be". A woodcut of the royal family with their Christmas tree at Osborne House, initially published in the Illustrated London News of December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850 (illustration, left). Such patriotic prints of the British royal family at Christmas celebrations helped popularise the Christmas tree in Britain and among the Anglophile American upper class.

Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree: Windsor Locks, Connecticut, claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House, while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821 -- leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America.[8] Other accounts credit Charles Follen, a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce to America the custom of decorating a Christmas tree.[9] August Imgard, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, is the first to popularise the practice o

Answer 4

you stole my thunder

baker's dozen.

doubting Thomas

having the upper hand

Root Beer

Rented game: ????

Morality plays

the Air conditioner

Dead Sea

the Days of the week

Kangaroo

Answer 5

You stole my thunder / copy cat

Baker's Dozen

Thumbs up

Root Beer

Stained Glass Windows

Air conditioner

Dead Sea

Days of week

Australia - Kangaroo

game - don't know

Answer 6

No one is going to read all that.. I wouldn't anyway

Answer 7

Quite some fun to search on google and increase my general knowledge! But ofcourse I would say I wasted my time searching for the answers knowing you would post it. Oh well, here goes:

John Dennis: "That is my thunder, by God; the villains will play my thunder, but not my play."

OR

"to steal one's thunder"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dennis...

Baker's  dozen.

Source: somewhere in the rusted part of my brain, so a confirmation at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker's_doz...

Doubting Thomas

Tough Call. My guess would be 'winner of the hand'

Root Beer

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_beer#T...

http://eatyourhistory.blogspot.com/2005/...

Game Rental: No clue :(

Scrolls. If not, I am close.

Wow, Air conditioners. Never had a clue, wiki to the rescue

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Carr...

Dead Sea (didnt expect this one)

Days of the week (this one too)

Kangaroo (oh well).