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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 112. QUIZ 2019

December 24, 2019 The Allusionist
logo for Allusionist 112 Quiz 2019

For your last Allusionist of 2019, here is a quiz all about words for you to play along with as you listen.

QUESTION 1.
Originally a term for someone in a particular philosophical sect, the word ‘cynic’ derives from which animal?

The word ‘cynic’ derives from A. ‘dog’.

‘Cynic’ came from the Ancient Greek ‘κυνικός’, dog-like, and there are various explanations as to why: that the cynics congregated at a gymnasium on the outskirts of Athens called Kynosarges, meaning ‘the white dog’ or ‘swift dog’; or, the cynics were dog-like, as in bad-tempered or surly - though most dogs I’ve ever met I’d characterise as genial.

QUESTION 2.
Hunters avoided calling bears ‘bears’. Which of these was an actual euphemism for bear?

Bears have been known by all of the above terms! Everybody wins a point.

Read more here about why hunters treated the actual word ‘bear’ as taboo.

QUESTION 3.
The word ’silly’ originally meant:

The word ‘silly’ originally meant B. happy. People, there’s nothing silly about happiness!

QUESTION 4.
The swaying motion of a boat is the original meaning of which fashion-related word?

The swaying motion of a boat is the original meaning of A. vogue.

From the Old French ‘voguer’, to row or sail. Why did this start to mean ‘fashion’ in the early 1600s? Because a boat was on a course ...to style? It was sailing on the waves of chic? You tell me.

QUESTION 5.
‘Gambit’: which body part does the word derive from?

The word ‘gambit’ derives from B. legs.

Gambit came from the Italian word ‘gambetto’, a wrestling move involving tripping someone up with your leg, the Latin word for which was ‘gamba’. See also gams, gambol, gammon, the political word of the year...

QUESTION 6. Truth or Untruth?
A sarcophagus is a stone casket that is supposed to contain your flesh after you die. But ‘sarcophagus’ in Ancient Greek literally means ‘flesh-eating’ - truth or untruth?

TRUTH! ‘Sarcophagus’ in Ancient Greek literally means ‘flesh-eating’ .

There was a kind of limestone they thought ate flesh, ie hastened a dead body’s decomposition.

QUESTION 7. Truth or Untruth?
‘Sarcophagus’ shares a root word as ‘sarcasm’, the literal meaning of which is making mincemeat of somebody - truth or untruth?

UNTRUTH! But it’s close to the truth: the ‘sarc’ in both sarcasm and sarcophagus meant ‘meat’ so sarcasm was to tear or strip off the flesh. Which, if you’ve been on the receiving end of some particularly brutal sarcasm, should be understandable.

QUESTION 8. Truth or Untruth?
The word ‘grotesque’ is a mispronunciation of ‘scrotesque’, meaning something that looks like a scrotum - truth or untruth?

UNTRUTH!

‘Grotesque’ derives from the Italian word ‘grottesco’, meaning ‘of a cave’, like grotto, which itself is a corruption of the Latin word for ‘crypt’, itself from the Greek meaning a hiding place.

Before getting to deep into the catacombs, let’s return to ‘grotesque’, found in English since the mid-1500s as an art term, after very elaborate decorations were discovered in a palace built some 1500 years before for Emperor Nero but soon after his death was buried and built over, hence the cave association in the word ‘groteseque’.

The ornate style of decoration usually involved creatures and foliage and distorted faces and you can see why the term took a turn towards the disgusting.

QUESTION 9.
The word ‘normal’ derives from:

The word ‘normal’ derives from A. ‘norma’, the Latin for a carpenter’s square.

Carpenter’s squares were used to make right-angles. The earliest known English meaning of ‘normal’ was ‘perpendicular’.

QUESTION 10.
The word ‘perpendicular’ derives from which tool?

The word ‘perpendicular’ derives from B. plumb line.

QUESTION 11.
Carats, measure of the fineness of gold, are so called after:

Carats, measure of the fineness of gold, are so called after A. carob seeds.

Carob seeds were were used as a small measurement of weight, known in Latin as a siliqua - also part of their name for carob. A siliqua was a thin silver coin, and 24 of them amounted to one solidus, a gold coin. Hence why gold purity is measured in twenty-fourths.

QUESTION 12.
‘Harbinger’ is a late 15th century word, previously ‘herbinger’, which meant:

‘Harbinger’, previously ‘herbinger’, was A. a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings.

For an army or a king. Couldn’t just book ahead online then. ‘Herber’ meant shelter, related to harbour.

QUESTION 13.
The etymology of the word 'vapid' is:

Etymologically, ‘vapid’ is A. a drink that had gone flat, or stale wine.

QUESTION 14.
The Latin word for ‘milk’, lac, also turns up in which other consumable?

The Latin word for ‘milk’, lac, also turns up in C. lettuce.

Because lettuce exudes a millky-looking juice. It’s not, to my mind, the most memorable trait of lettuce, not in the top three lettuce-related things that I might have enshrined in the name, but nobody asked me.

QUESTION 15. Eponyms
‘Comstockery’, the prudish censorship of materials perceived to be immoral obscene, comes from Anthony Comstock, the United States Postal Inspector who founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. During his career as the self-elected ‘weeder in God’s garden’, Comstock destroyed 15 tons of books, and stated that “Books are a gateway to” what?

Anthony Comstock stated that books are a gateway to C. brothels.

Even some medical students were prevented from receiving medical textbooks under Comstock’s decades-long reign over American decency, which in 1919, four years after his death, was declared unconstitutional.

QUESTION 16. Eponyms
In French, the word for a trashcan is 'poubelle', after the administrator Eugene Poubelle, who in 1884 decreed that every residence in Paris must be provided with three bins: one for perishable rubbish, one for cloth and paper, and one for what?

Eugene Poubelle in 1884 decreed that every residence in Paris must be provided with three bins: one for perishable rubbish, one for cloth and paper, and one for B. crockery and shells.

QUESTION 17. Eponyms
Another French eponym: 'leotard', named after Jules Léotard, who wore the tight one-piece garments while he did what?

Jules Léotard wore leotards when he did C. trapeze.

Though he invented and popularised the garment, Jules Leotard didn’t call it a leotard, he called it a maillot.

BONUS EPONYMS QUESTION:

audio inkblot

There are no points for this answer, just some insight into your own soul.

If you scored 0: better luck next time
If you scored 1-16: not bad
If you scored 17: congratulations!

I couldn’t let 2019 go without one more
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
zygodactyl

A112 wotd zygodactyl

CREDITS:

You heard from the following fellow Radiotopians, in order of appearance:

  • Vivian Le of 99% Invisible

  • Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor of Ear Hustle (and the Allusionist episodes Ear Hustling and Open Me part 1)

  • Neil Katcher of Mortified (and the Allusionist ep Spill Your Guts)

  • Jonathan Mitchell of The Truth (and the Allusionist US Election Lexicon)

  • Ian Chillag of Everything Is Alive (and the Allusionist episode Typo Demon)

  • Nate DiMeo of The Memory Palace (and Allusionist episodes including Toki Pona and One To Another)

  • Roman Mars of 99% Invisible (and myriad Allusionist episodes)

This episode was written and produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The music and sound effects are by Martin Austwick. Hear his work at palebirdmusic.com.

Thanks so much for joining me this year! The show will be back in January 2010.

- HZ

In episodes, quiz Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, Roman Mars, 99PI, Nate DiMeo, The Memory Palace, The Truth, podcast, podcasts, podcasters, quiz, questions, eponyms, history, etymology, phrases, hygiene, waste disposal, Emperor Nero, Nero, Radiotopian guest appearance, zygodactyl
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