Word Families Trivia Quiz

Answer: a gust of wind

Gustare means to taste, to enjoy what you taste.
Gust is probably related to the verb gush and to words such as gutsen (used of pouring rain in Dutch), giutan (to pour in Gothic). These are all words that may refer to violent movements of wind and/or water.

Answer: condom

The condom got its name after an 18th century English doctor Condom. There is also a French town called Condom but there need be no link there.
Madonna is from Latin domina and Italian donna, the "lady of the house".
Dominic is from a similar Latin dies domenica, the day of the lord.
A condominium means that a region is administered jointly by two or more powers and as can be seen in words such as 'to dominate' and 'predominant' the general common idea behind all those words is related to "who is the boss - at home", domus being a house, somebody's home, etc.

Answer: to canter

Cantor from Latin cantare is a singer or the leader of a church choir.
To re-cant is to sing again, but a different tune this time because you withdraw what you had said previously.
A canto is a division in certain poems, and poems originally were songs.
To canter has no link with cantare but derives from the easy pace used by pilgrims riding on horseback to Canterbury.

Answer: lucrative

Was not Lucifer the Light-bearer among angels before he made his terrible fall? To elucidate is to clarify by casting light on something. When something is translucent it lets light pass - though no clear image is possible.
Lucrative has no link with lux-lucis (light) but refers to "lucrum" which is Latin for "money making", "financial gain".

Answer: magnolia

Three of these words are related to magnus or major, maius, meaning big, bigger.
Her or His Majesty is etymologically speaking His or Her "Bigness": the super-important one. The Mayor is "bigger" than his Aldermen. And the Great Charter being the English for Magna C(h)arta shows that there too "magnitude" is involved.
Yet the magnolia is not related to "bigness" but to a French botanist of the name Pierre Magnol.
More related words are: majordomo; magnificent; magnifying glass; magnate. But not magnet, which derives from magnesium, stone from Magnesia.

Answer: lithe

A monolith is made of one stone. Lithographs are ink impressions made with a large flat stone. And lithium has been named for some likeness to stone. Lithe has a meaning that is very remote from any stony character as it means easily bent. It is related to lissom and to Latin lenis (soft, gentle).

Answer: library

Three of these words are related to the Latin adjective liber-libera-liberum. The livery was the 'costume' servants got for free, "delivered freely".
A libertine pushes the idea of liberty beyond certain limits.
The word library at first sight is also related to "liber" but it is not the same word liber. Liber-libri ,in the sense of a book, is a Latin substantive that originally meant 'bark of a tree' and then what you could write on a bark of a tree. Similarly, 'book' derives from (bark of a) beech tree .

Answer: fete (from French)

To surfeit originally meant to make more food than you can eat. To counterfeit means that you make another, falsified version of something.
Fetish is a god of your own making, from Portuguese feitico, which literally means "roughly made statuette". It is related to Latin factitius, artificial.
In all these cases there is a link with Latin facere, which becomes French faire.
Feijoada, the famous Brasilian dish, is probably not related to any form of Latin facere to make, but to feijao the Portuguese for phaseolus bean.
Fete is from festa.

Answer: feint

When sabre-bearing was still a common practice, to fence was the noble art of defending yourself from an attacker. A fence defended your territory from intruders. A fender may be a mud-guard which "defends" you from splashing up mud or water.
To feint is related to Latin fingere (related to fiction) and French feindre and suggests the making of deceptive movements to mislead your opponent. It is a form of make believe.

Answer: lingam

A linguist is somebody who is more or less proficient in several languages, or who has studied linguistics. Lingua franca is a language that serves as a common language between different peoples. Lingo is the word for a peculiar type of language, jargon or slightly bizarre individual style of speech, and may be a corruption of the word lingua franca.
All these words are related to Latin lingua, tongue.
By the way, linguine are a type of pasta that are somewhat akin to mini-tongues.
But lingam is the word for a phallic symbol in the Hindu worship of Shiva.