A Conversation for Ask h2g2
What's the oldest trick in the book?
Ferrettbadger. The Renegade Master Posted Oct 2, 2008
"Ugh ugh ugh ugh, ugh ugh ugh ugh, ugh"
Roughly translated...
"Honestly it is your baby, now go find us a bigger cave"
What's the oldest trick in the book?
I was thinking getting the baby out in the first place would be the oldest trick, but of course that predates books by several hundred thousand millennia.
What's the oldest trick in the book?
Icy North Posted Oct 3, 2008
I reckon it derives from another phrase "up to his old tricks". This goes back to Old English, and The OED lists a pre-Conquest phrase "his ealdan wrenceas" dated 1003 - in those days we used the word 'wrence' (wrench) for 'trick'.
The trick might well have been robbery or theft, as we say "turn a trick" today. This usage precedes the same phrase used for prostitution.
What's the oldest trick in the book?
Orcus Posted Oct 3, 2008
>by several hundred thousand millennia.>
Of course you know that 1 hundred thousand millenia is 100 million years. You're referring to the old dinosaur trick, picked up by the shrews and passed down all those generations of mammals until homo sapiens walked the earth I guess
What's the oldest trick in the book?
Christopher Posted Oct 3, 2008
My guess is the first organism that developed the ability either to deter predators or catch prey by means of camouflage.
What's the oldest trick in the book?
BouncyBitInTheMiddle Posted Oct 3, 2008
Is it the same as the first trick in the oldest book with a trick in it?
Or the oldest trick that has since been written down somewhere?
What's the oldest trick in the book?
Pink Paisley Posted Nov 25, 2008
Without a doubt, the oldest trick in the book would be one turned by an exponent of the oldest profession.
PP
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What's the oldest trick in the book?
- 1: swl (Oct 2, 2008)
- 2: pedro (Oct 2, 2008)
- 3: Xanatic (Oct 2, 2008)
- 4: Alec Trician. (is keeping perfectly still) (Oct 2, 2008)
- 5: Ferrettbadger. The Renegade Master (Oct 2, 2008)
- 6: kea ~ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded but very well read blue and white website (Oct 2, 2008)
- 7: kea ~ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded but very well read blue and white website (Oct 2, 2008)
- 8: Icy North (Oct 3, 2008)
- 9: Orcus (Oct 3, 2008)
- 10: Christopher (Oct 3, 2008)
- 11: BouncyBitInTheMiddle (Oct 3, 2008)
- 12: Taff Agent of kaos (Oct 3, 2008)
- 13: Orcus (Oct 3, 2008)
- 14: Taff Agent of kaos (Oct 3, 2008)
- 15: Pink Paisley (Nov 25, 2008)
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