Quiz - Words & Phrases

Questions

1. Who is a "whipping boy"?
2. This ancient city in the land of Shinar, in which the construction of a tower intended to reach heaven was begun, has given a word to us. What is that word?
3. What is a "cat's paw"?
4. What are the "locust years"?
5. Who are the "hoi polloi"?

Scroll down for the answers.
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1. A boy who was to be whipped in place of a prince who was to be punished.

2. Babel. In the Bible, a city (now thought to be Babylon) in Shinar where God confused the builders of a tower into heaven by turning the language of its builders into many languages with none of these 'new' languages comprehensible to the others.

3. Someone used as a tool by another

4. A period of economic hardship. This word was coined by Winston Churchill (on the basis of the Bible verse Joel 2:25) to describe the years 1931–35 in Britain.

5. The common people. Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning "the" and polloi, the plural of polus, "many." Hoi polloi is sometimes incorrectly used to mean "the elite," possibly because it is reminiscent of high and mighty or because it sounds like hoity-toity.