The Phrase Finder explains that this is an expression for a “…prize given to make fun of the loser in a contest or game.” Further explanation is that the word “booby” has been used to mean dunce or nincompoop since the late sixteenth century. “The word probably derives from the Spanish word ‘bobo’ meaning ‘fool’ or ‘dunce’.”

The spelling isn’t the only thing that is in doubt, although of the four versions in the title the first and the fourth seem to be preferred by some. Ask.com says “The middle of a target is called a bullseye because…archers would practice by shooting at a bull’s skull. They would practice until the hit the eye of the bull. Allexperts.com disagrees. That site has a complicated description that the origin is unclear, but not related to archery. I’ll give a short version of their theory, and that it is related to the word “center,” and “is in reference to glass—a thick boss or prominence in the center of a glass pane.” Regardless, we use the term to mean the center of a target or to describe that we have achieved exactly the goal we set out to meet.

World Wide Words explains that the “original dilemma in rhetoric was a device by which you presented your opponent with two alternatives…” The opponent loses the argument regardless of the response. A famous example is “Have you decided to stop beating your wife?”

The origin of the expression goes back to as early as the mid-fifteen hundreds in which a scholar says “…it doesn’t matter which of the two points a person made a direct answer, either way he would run on to the sharp of the horn.”

This is another folksy expression in the book “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver. There are some disagreements whether the expression is about the Creek Indians or whether it is about the more mundane level of water in the creeks. My Missouri relatives used the term “crick” instead of creek, so I go with the reference that says the saying referred to flooding and not the Creek Indians.

This expression is used several times in the best-selling book “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver. I had forgotten the expression, although I heard it many times from my Missouri female relatives as a kid. The Phrase Finder explains that it is either a euphemism for “I swear,” or a derivation of a northern England phrase from the 1800s “Is’ wan,” or literally “I shall warrant” or “I’ll be bound.”

Worldwide words explains that the phrase means “in addition” when two people are negotiating a deal. The phrase came from the Old English “bot” (additional or remedy). It has a Germanic and Dutch origin “boete” and English words “better or best.” Shakespeare uses it to describe taking of advantage of being distracted. Many old references can be translated as “benefit.”