Saturday, March 09, 2013

Words, Words, Words...Can't Get Enough of Them!




It’s quiz time again so sharpen your pencils and test your mettle.  I’ve separated the words into three categories:  You’ve Seen One, Keeping Them Straight, and Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office.  Use your knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and Greek endings. 

You’ve Seen One
           1.       Funambulist; 2.  Menhir; 3.  Crash; 4.  Volute; 5.  Caryatid; 6.  Ziyada; 7.  Strigil; 8.  Tatterdemalion
[Choose one:  a – glutton; b – outer court of a mosque; c – tightrope walker; d – mottled markings; e – traveler; f – prehistoric monument consisting of a huge upright stone, a standing stone; g – carved female figure used as column supporting a structure; h – chemical compound used to dissolve alkaline stains; i – course open-weave cloth used in book binding as a lining for the spine; j – spiral scroll decoration used on an Ionic capital; k – person who wears raggedly clothes; l – astringent; m – curve bladed instrument used to scrape sweat and dirt from the body after exercise] Not all choices will be used.

Keeping Them Straight
1.       Exegete, exigent, exiguous
2.       Obviate, obsecrate, objurgate
3.       Apothegm, apothem, apotheosis
4.       Apotropaic, apodictic, apogee
5.       Obloquy, obliquity
6.       Ersatz, erstwhile

[All choices will have a match. a – to scold angrily; b – highest point of glory and power, elevation of human to status of a god; c – slander, defamatory statement; d – protective, warding off evil; e – former friend or supporter; f – urgent; g – make unnecessary; h – pity, terse remark; i – an imitation or inferior substitute; j – scanty, meager; k – departure from right or moral principles; l – a perpendicular from the center of a regular polygon to one of its sides; m – solemnly beseech; n – one who studies, speaks, or writes as a scriptural expert; o – certain, necessary truth; p – greatest point away from an object in orbit, farthest away]

Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office
1.       Anosmia; 2.  Enervate; 3.  Sui generis; 4.  Naïf; 5.  Escheat; 6.  Hamartia; 7.  Obtund; 8.  Sinecure; 9.  Instantiate; 10.  Farouche; 11.  Telluric; 12.  Encomium; 13.  Apposite; 14.  Epigone; 15.  Onomastics   
[Choose one: a – position that requires little or no work but one that provides a secure salary; b – naïve person; c – reversion of property to the state after the death of  someone; d – inability to remember names; e – terrestrial, coming from the earth, soil or atmosphere; f – to invigorate; g – one of a kind, unique; h – orphaned child; i – splendid carriage used for royal parades; j – place in an adversarial position; k – inability to smell; l – to weaken or destroy physical, moral or mental vigor; m – high praise for a speech or writing; n – fatal or tragic flaw or error that brings an honorable person disproportionate harm; o – alchemist; p – pretended ignorance; q – study of meaning and origin of proper names; r – shy or awkward, unsociable; s – to blunt, deaden or dull; t – to explain using concrete example; u – relevant, well-suited; v – follower of an important artist or philosopher who is a mediocre imitator] Not all choices will be used.

And the answers are…
                You’ve Seen One:  1/c; 2/f; 3/i; 4/j; 5/g; 6/b; 7/m; 8/k
                Keeping Them Straight:   (Answers will be in the order listed) 1.  n, f, j;   2.  g, m, a;   3.  h, l, b;   4.  d, o, p;   5.  c, k;   6.  i, e.    
                Word Drop Your Way to a Corner Office:    1/k; 2/l; 3/g; 4/b; 5/c; 6/n, 7/s; 8/a; 9/t; 10/r; 11/e; 12/m; 13/u; 14/v; 15/q.
Congratulations.  Hope you enjoyed the mental calisthenics. Now go out there and amaze!

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