Let's Talk About Ex Trivia Quiz

Answer: ilex

Ilex (pl. "ilexes" or "ilices") is the generic name of over 500 flowering plants, mainly trees or shrubs, known in English as hollies. The type species, the common European holly (Ilex aquifolium), is widely used in Christmas wreaths and other decorations.

In classical Latin, the word ilex (of unclear origin) denoted the holm, or holly, oak (Quercus ilex), an evergreen tree species from Southern Europe. In the 18th century, the word was adopted by Carl Linnaeus as a generic name for the hollies, because of the similarity of these plants' glossy, tapering leaves to those of the holm oak.

Answer: vortex

Vortex (pl. "vortexes" or "vortices") denotes a mass of air or fluid that spins very fast in a circular motion, pulling objects into its empty centre. Like many of the words that appear in this quiz, it is of Latin origin, and is a variant of "vertex", derived from the verb "vertere" ("turn" or "bend"). Meteorological phenomena such as cyclones, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all vortices in the Earth's atmosphere; a polar vortex is a region of rotating cold air located at both of Earth's poles, often held responsible for spells of unusually cold weather. Whirlpools, such as the notorious Maelstrom of Edgar Allan Poe fame, are vortexes that occur in water.

"Vorticism" was also the name given to an artistic and literary movement - similar to Italian and Russian Futurism - that flourished in England in the 1910s.

Answer: circumflex

From the Latin "circumflexus" ("bent around"), a circumflex, or circumflex accent, is a chevron-shaped diacritic mark (^) used in the Latin script to indicate the length, pitch, or tone of a vowel, or other distinctive qualities; in the Greek script, it had a different, more rounded shape.

Some languages also use the circumflex on consonants, but these occurrences are much less frequent. The circumflex is widely used in French, and occasionally appears in French loanwords that have become part of the English vocabulary - such as "(crème) brûlée" or "pâté".

Answer: narthex

A distinctive architectural feature of many early Christian and Byzantine churches, a narthex (pl. "narthexes" or "nartices") was a sort of antechamber, a dedicated area that allowed penitents, as well as those who had not yet been baptized, to take part in a religious service without entering the main church.

The narthex was located at the west end of the nave, opposite the main altar. This word has a rather interesting etymology, as in Ancient Greek it referred to the giant fennel (Ferula communis), a plant whose stalks were made into rods and whips used by schoolmasters to discipline their pupils - hence its later association with a part of the church where penitents congregated.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, funerals are traditionally held in the narthex.

Answer: murex

In ancient times, the name "murex" (pl. "murexes" or "murices") was given to two species of predatory marine sea snails found in the Mediterranean region, from whose secretions the highly-prized dye known as Tyrian purple was produced. This dye, whose production was a long, labour-intensive process, was used to dye ceremonial robes worn by people of high rank, and became associated with royalty; members of the Byzantine imperial family were said to be "born in the purple".

The generic name Murex, however, is not used any longer for those Mediterranean species, which are now classified in different (though related) genera.

Interestingly, murex, like "mussel" and "muscle", is believed to be derived from "mús", the Ancient Greek word for "mouse"

Answer: pollex

Pollex (pl. "pollices") refers to the first digit of the forelimb of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. In particular, it denotes the thumb on the human hand and on the hand and foot of lower primates - a digit that is thicker and shorter than the others, as it has only two phalanges.

The corresponding digit of the human foot is called "hallux": in Latin, however, "pollex" meant both "thumb" and "big toe". The Latin term is believed to be derived from the verb "pollere", meaning "to be strong or powerful".

In Ancient Rome, the pollex was also a unit of measurement roughly equivalent to an inch - which is still called "pollice" in Italian, and "pouce" in French.

Answer: haruspex

In the religion of Ancient Rome, a haruspex (pl. "haruspices"; also spelled without the initial "h") was a religious official trained to interpret omens by inspecting the liver and entrails of sacrificed animals, mainly sheep or poultry. The practice, of Etruscan origin, was known as "haruspicina", or "hepatomancy" ("liver divination") in Greek.

The term comes from "haru", an archaic word meaning "entrails" (cognate with "hernia"), and "specere" (found in English words such as "spectacles"), meaning "look at", "observe".

Another related "ex" word is "auspex" (literally "bird-watcher"), which refers to the Greco-Roman practice of interpreting the behaviour of birds; the English word "auspicious" comes from that.

Answer: annex

If used as a verb, "annex" means to add or append, and is often used in reference to a country's addition of a territory to its own by appropriation - something that has happened all too often in human history (as in the case of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938).

As a noun, "annex" (pl. "annexes") generally refers to a building joined to another building, or an addition to a document. This word originally comes from the Latin "annectere", meaning "bind to (something)" - though English borrowed it from the Old French "annexer".

Answer: spandex

An anagram of "expands", spandex is one of the names for a synthetic fibre characterized by its extreme elasticity, invented in 1958 by American textile chemist Joseph C. Shivers. Originally created for women's underwear, spandex is now used for a wide range of clothes, shoes, and other accessories, particularly (but not exclusively) sportswear.

The term spandex is used mainly in the US, while in the UK the fibre is known as Lycra, and in continental Europe as elastane (or variants thereof). Though spandex is a modern word, it does bear a relation to Latin like most other words in this quiz, since "expand" comes from the Latin "expandere", meaning "spread out" or "stretch" - which is what spandex does best.

Answer: codex

A codex (pl. "codexes" or "codices") is the ancestor of modern books, though generally made of sheets of parchment (vellum) rather than paper. Other materials, such as papyrus, were also used, especially in the earliest examples, dating back from around the 1st century AD, when they started to replace scrolls. Though bound much in the same way as modern books are, historical codices are handwritten, and often elaborately illuminated with expensive materials.

The word codex comes from the Latin "caudex", meaning "tree trunk" or "block of wood" - a reference to the wax-coated wooden tablets used by the Romans for writing, which could be bound together with metal rings or leather thongs.