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Supercharge YOUR Word Power with ...A Word for Everything!Your brain needs a workout the same as the rest of you if it's to function properly, and word quizzes are an ideal way to provide this exercise for your little grey cells. Start now with these sample chapters from A Word for Everything, then get your very own copy and amaze your friends!
What do you call that little bit on the end of your shoelaces? What's a polite name for those annoying, spoilt children you always get stuck next to in a bus or on a long distance flight? And what on earth is a balthazar? Go on ... I bet you're just a little bit curious, aren't you? Where can you find the answer to these and 1073 other questions about words? Ta-da! Without further ado, may I present to you the modestly named Quiz Book ... A Word for Everything! Click the PayPal button to get your 102 Quizzes plus the 5 bonus quizzes now. Here are a couple of excerpts ... See how many of these words you know, then check the answers at the bottom of this page. Chapter 2 “WHAT
DO YOU DO? WHAT’S YOUR FATHER DO?” I had occasion to visit the
dentist last week ... and before you try to tell me that these days there's
nothing to be scared about ... I know that. But the formative years of my teeth
coincided with the introduction of Coca Cola out here, so I became well
acquainted with a series of dentists and quite frankly, the experiences are
seared into the reptilian depths of my brain. We're talking survival here, folks ... pure and simple. That lizard part of my little grey cells dredges up tribal memories of some lumbering figure, bearing down on me with flint arrowhead and rock hammer for a spot of trephining on a tender part of my skull to release the evil spirits causing my pain, and the fear factor kicks in no matter how hard to I try to suppress it. So it was with sweaty palms that I sat in the waiting room as the youngster (could she have been a day over 11?) emerged from the surgery and beckoned me in. As I watched this slip of a girl (OK. Maybe on closer observation she was twenty-something), I wondered what ever possessed her to go into dentistry. Can you think of anything worse than spending your working day peering into people's mouths? Well, to answer my own question, "Yes." Picture the scene ... it's a beautiful autumn morning, the birds are chirping in the trees, you spring out of bed, run to the open window, take a deep breath of fresh air, turn to your mum and say, "I'm going to be a proctologist!" Why? In the name of all that's sane ... Why? So as I sat in The Chair, I pondered some of the myriad medical specialists out there (anything to get my mind off what was going on) and wondered if there was even one that I could bring myself to do for a living. (And if you haven't guessed by now, let me just say that Nurse Nancy I'm not. I have not even a passing interest in the workings of the digestive tract of any other human being, so please don't tell me about your bowel habits, your hiatus hernia or your reflux ... I just don't want to know!) A few possibilities that fought their way past the madman with the stone axe and into my conscious mind included: Ear, Nose & Throat (Too much halitosis. Ugh!) Dermatologist (I once saw a photo of the skin's surface taken with an electron microscope ... Now there's the stuff of nightmares) Podiatrist (I realise the foot is one of the unsung heroes of the anatomical world ... but wouldn't you think, that if there's a specialist for the foot, that there should, logically, be one for the hand, too?) Urologist (No comment) Otolaryngologist (Fancy doing that to your kids! "What does your mummy do, dear?" "Um ... she's a otto ... an orta ... a orry ... She's a (sob sob) ... Mar-meee!") By the way, otolaryngologist is just a flash name for our aforementioned ear, nose and throat bloke; a urologist studies the urinary tract in men and women and the genital tract in men; and the word proctologist comes from the Greek proktos (anus) and logos (study) ... Say no more! Division
of labour and specialisation of labour have enabled humans to achieve their top
spot in the food chain. Once our ancestors realised that a few specialist
hunters and gatherers could run around and get hot and sweaty while providing
enough to feed the entire mob, it was no longer necessary for every individual
to spend all day hunting hairy mammoth or collecting berries. So the less
athletic members of the human race were then able to spend their time
thinking and inventing and experimenting … How else would we have come up with
Tupperware, eh? What
you do to keep the wolf from the door is an important part of where you fit in
the Grand Scheme of Things, how you see yourself and how others perceive you. No
wonder we have so many words related to occupations! Set 1 Match up the specialist with
the job: nephrologist, pulmonologist,
gastroenterologist, toxicologist, otolaryngologist, immunologist,
cytopathologist, ophthalmologist, cardiologist,
neurophysiologist 1. treats diseases of the ear,
nose, and throat and some diseases of the head and neck, including facial
plastic surgery 2. treats eye defects,
injuries, and diseases 3. treats stomach disorders 4. conducts the diagnosis and
treatment of allergic conditions 5. treats heart disease 6. treats kidney disease 7. treats disorders of the
nervous system and muscles 8. diagnoses disease by
studying cells obtained from body secretions, scrapings, or aspiration 9. treats diseases of the lungs 10.treat people who have been
poisoned by household or industrial toxins, environmental toxins, and
prescription and nonprescription drugs
Have you ever stayed at the end
of a film to watch the credits? Fascinating, isn't it? Apart from the fact that
you wonder how any movie-maker ever makes any money, there are some wondrous job
titles in there. Try your hand at matching up the terms with their meanings: segue, dailies, beat, mixer,
looping, gaffer, cutter, dolly grip, best boy, breakaway 1. assistant to the electrician 2. specially designed prop or
set piece which looks solid by shatters easily 3. electrician 4. screening of footage before
it is edited 5. crew member who moves the
piece of equipment that the camera sits on to allow mobility of the camera 6. chief of the sound crew; responsible for the quality of the sound recording on a shoot 7. transition from one shot to
another in editing 8. single unit of action 9. person responsible for
assembling the various visual and audio components of a film into a coherent and
effective whole. 10.an in-studio technique
matching, synchronizing voice to picture
Click the PayPal button to get your 102 Quizzes plus the 5 bonus quizzes now. Chapter
7 OO-ER YUCK! Set
7 horripilation,
sniggle, palimpsest, cachinnate, golem, tergiversate, latimer, usurp, parvenu,
horology 1. parchment
that has been used more than once that still bears some of the previous imprint 2. an
upstart 3. one
having a knowledge of Latin 4. the art
of making time pieces 5. getting
goose bumps 6. to laugh
loudly or too much 7. a man
artificially created, an automaton 8. to catch
eels by pushing bait into their burrows 9. to desert
a cause; to equivocate 10.to take power by force
Set
8 Now I know
these are not your run-of-the-mill words ... but I thought you might be able to
toss a few into the conversation when your annoying relatives are trying to
impress everyone at family gatherings. Match the words with their meanings: paramnesia,
frumenty, bromidrosis, piacular, infundibulum, catenary, fuliginous, natterjack,
apotropaic, quidnunc 1. requiring
a sacrifice 2. a nosey
person; a gossip 3. coloured
as if or by soot 4. common
brownish-yellow short-legged toad; runs rather than hops 5. intended
to ward off evil; a talisman 6. the curve
formed by a perfectly flexible, uniformly dense, and inextensible cable
suspended from its endpoints; the slightly-drooping curve that a stretched rope
or cable assumes under the influence of gravity 7. hulled
wheat boiled in milk and flavored with sugar and spices 8. a
distortion of memory in which fantasy and objective experience are confused; an
inability to recall the meanings of common words. 9. any of
various funnel-shaped bodily passages, openings, structures, or parts 10. strongly
smelling perspiration ANSWERS Set
1 Answers 1. treats diseases of the ear,
nose, and throat and some diseases of the head and neck, including facial
plastic surgery - OTOLARYNGOLOGIST 2. treats eye defects,
injuries, and diseases - OPHTHAMOLOGIST 3. treats stomach disorders -
GASTROENEROLOGIST 4. conducts the diagnosis and
treatment of allergic conditions - IMMUNOLOGIST 5. treats heart disease -
CARDIOLOGIST 6. treats kidney disease -
NEPHROLOGIST 7. treats disorders of the
nervous system and muscles - NEUROPHYSIOLOGIST 8. diagnoses disease by
studying cells obtained from body secretions, scrapings, or aspiration -
CYTOPATHOLOGIST 9. treats diseases of the lungs
- PULMONOLOGIST 10.treat people who have been
poisoned by household or industrial toxins, environmental toxins, and
prescription and nonprescription drugs - TOXICOLOGIST Set
2 Answers 1. assistant to the electrician
- BEST BOY 2. specially designed prop or
set piece which looks solid by shatters easily - BREAKAWAY 3. electrician -GAFFER 4. screening of footage before
it is edited - DAILIES 5. crew member who moves the
piece of equipment that the camera sits on to allow mobility of the camera -
DOLLY GRIP 6. chief of the sound crew;
responsible for the quality of the sound recording on a shoot - MIXER 7. transition from one shot to
another in editing - SEGUE 8. single unit of action - BEAT 9. person responsible for
assembling the various visual and audio components of a film into a coherent and
effective whole. - CUTTER 10.an in-studio technique
matching, synchronizing voice to picture - LOOPING Set
7 Answers 1. parchment that has been used more than once that still bears some of the previous imprint - PALIMPSEST (This comes from two Greek words, palin 'again' and psen 'to run.') 2. an
upstart - PARVENU (We pinched this directly from the French!) 3. one
having a knowledge of Latin - LATIMER (This is a bit of a cheat word - it IS a
real word, but it was obsolete in 1956 ...) 4. the art
of making time pieces - HOROLOGY (Another word derived from Greek - from hora 'hour' and the suffix -logy
'the science of.') 5. getting
goose bumps - HORRIPILATION (Here's another vying to be my favourite new word -
it comes from a Latin word, horripilare
meaning 'to bristle with hairs' and perfectly describes that sensation when the
hairs on the back of your neck stand up and shivers go down your spine ... just
sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Hor-RIP-i-la-tion ...) 6. to laugh
loudly or too much - CACHINATE (Another derived from Latin - from cacchinatus which means 'from echoic origin.' You know those people
whose laugh echoes around inside your head until you could just scream? Their
cacchination leads to delicious thoughts of what could be done with blunt
objects ...) 7. man
artificially created, an automaton - GOLEM (This comes from a Hebrew word that
originally meant 'embryo' but later came to mean 'monster' ...
Now you can see why Tolkien called his quirky little character, "Gollum,"
can't you?) 8. to catch
eels by pushing bait into their burrows - SNIGGLE (I just love this word - I've
been trying all week to work it into a conversation - alas, without success. It
comes from a Provincial English word for eel, snig.) 9. to desert
a cause; to equivocate - TERGIVERSATE (OK - just to show how much we owe to the
Romans - here's yet another word derived from Latin - tergiversari means 'to turn one's back.') 10.to take
power by force - USURP (This was an easy one ... ) Set
8 Answers 1. Something
hopelessly bad; requiring a sacrifice or expiation (The usefulness of this word
all rather depends on the nature of your friends and family.) – PIACULAR 2. A nosey
person; a gossip (Don't feel bad ... we all have at least one in the family.)
– QUIDNUNC 3. Coloured
as if or by soot – FULIGINOUS 4. Common
brownish-yellow short-legged toad; runs rather than hops – NATTERJACK 5. Intended
to ward off evil; a talisman (Now don't try to tell me there won't be times in
the days ahead when you'd give a small fortune to get your hands on one of
these!) – APOTROPAIC 6. The curve
formed by a perfectly flexible, uniformly dense, and inextensible cable
suspended from its endpoints; the slightly-drooping curve that a stretched rope
or cable assumes under the influence of gravity – CATENARY 7. Hulled
wheat boiled in milk and flavored with sugar and spices (Sounds a bit off at
first, but when you think about it, this could be quite tasty.) – FRUMENTY 8. A
distortion of memory in which fantasy and reality are confused; an inability to
recall the meanings of common words. (Tell me about it!)
- PARAMNESIA 9. Any of
various funnel-shaped bodily passages, openings, structures, or parts (Like
nasal passages.) – INFUNDIBULUM 10. Strongly smelling perspiration (Definitely makes you go Oooerr yuck!) - BROMIDROSIS A Word for Everything If you'd like to super charge your word power, just click one of the links below to get your copy of 102 quizzes containing 1076 words you can use to impress your friends and confound your opponents! Bonus You'll also receive a bonus chapter of X and Z words. 55 of those impossible-to-think-of-when-you're-playing-word-games words that contain X or Z. And ALL of them are in the dictionary so there can be no arguments that you've made them up! CLICK NOW TO GET YOUR QUIZ BOOK Click the PayPal button to get your 102 Quizzes plus the 5 bonus quizzes now. OR Write101 Quiz Book - One Click Buy with your credit card on my secure order form. ANSWERS What do you call that little bit on the end of your shoelaces? An AGLET, of course. What's a polite name for those annoying, spoilt children you always get stuck next to in a bus or a long distance flight? The polite term is MAMMOTHREPT ... you may call them what you will under your breath! And what on earth is a BALTHAZAR? It's a large wine bottle holding about 12 litres, 16 times the volume of a regular bottle ... just the thing for Friday drinkies after a hard week at work!
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