Definition of: "riddle me" with explanation and origin
Definition of: riddle me with explanation and origin? Meaning of riddle me with examples in English idiom dictionary.
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Definition of: "riddle me" with explanation and origin
riddle me
riddle me this/that
Meaning
- a catchphrase used to introduce a joke, observation, question, or riddle.
- making a demand of a listener to note a situation about to be mentioned or a question, mostly ones that are hard to explain or solve.
- posing a challenge to a person to answer a question with no apparent answer.
- used to sarcastically or humorously pay emphasis to a question, undercutting the self-assuredness of another person.
- a rhetorical way of questioning conventional wisdom.
- pointing to hypocrisy or a contradiction or creating wry observations.
Example Sentences
- Despite acting so confidently, riddle me this: how will we get all that money within a day?
- How will you pay for all your plans if you quit your job? Riddle me that.
- Riddle me this: why was such a talented collective so horrible in their work?
Origin
Riddle me is an idiom whose use can be traced back to 1615. People use it as a way of presenting a brainteaser. A notable early use dates from 1693, when the English author John Dryden uses it in his translation of an ancient Roman satire, where the speaker says, “Riddle me this, and guess him if you can, who bears a nation in a single man.” The phrase appears in another play acted in 1700 when a character in it uses it as an introduction to a puzzle. The American Folklore Society, in 1924, has it that in Jamaica, the phrase occurred in a chant used before riddles; “riddle me this, riddle me that, and perhaps not.” It established itself by the middle of the 1900s when a Broadway musical was staged in 1933 under the title Riddle Me This. A riddle book was also published in 1940 under the title Riddle Me This.
However, its popularity rose in the 1960s when The Riddler, a villain in the Batman TV series, played by Frank Gorshin, used to preface the riddles he intended to use in taunting Batman, including Riddle me this. In Batman Forever, Jim Carey, the actor, also used the phrases “riddle me this” and “riddle me that.”
The Origins of riddle me
AssortedEnglish
Related Dictionary
- English Definition & Meaning Dictionary
- English Idioms and phrases Dictionary
- Dictionnaire Français
- Dictionnaire d'expressions idiomatiques et de phrases en français
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English Idioms and phrases
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below). By another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements.[3] For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context.
To evoke the desired effect in the listener, idioms require a precise replication of the phrase: not even articles can be used interchangeably (e.g. "kick a bucket" only retains the literal meaning of the phrase but not the idiomatic meaning).
Idioms should not be confused with other figures of speech such as metaphors, which evoke an image by use of implicit comparisons (e.g., "the man of steel"); similes, which evoke an image by use of explicit comparisons (e.g., "faster than a speeding bullet"); or hyperbole, which exaggerates an image beyond truthfulness (e.g., "more powerful than a locomotive"). Idioms are also not to be confused with proverbs, which are simple sayings that express a truth based on common sense or practical experience.
