Scramble Up to Ten Trivia Quiz

Answer: F

The answer is "f".

Of course, in the musical alphabet, there are only seven natural notes -- A, B, C, D, E, F, G. As for photography, the term is f-stop -- short for "focal" (according to most sources). On a camera lens, the aperture is basically an opening through which light passes -- so when you adjust the "f-number," you are increasing or decreasing the size of the hole. Naturally, the more light that gets in, the brighter the picture.

Anyway, for the moment we have just one letter -- F. Let's move on.

Answer: fi

The answer here is "fi". "Always faithful" is the translation of the Latin "Semper Fidelis" -- as noted, though, most often you would hear the slightly shortened form, "Semper Fi."

According to Veteran.com (among other sources), the Marine Corps has used "Semper Fidelis" as their motto since 1883. The predominant opinion of historians and scholars is that "ancient Roman senators coined the phrase."

As for its use in the States, "Semper Fidelis" seems self-explanatory -- a vow to be always loyal -- to the United States, to the Marine Corps, to fellow Marines, and even to oneself. I've known friends and family members who served in the Marine Corps -- people whose courage, integrity and loyalty really is extraordinary. To Marines, "Semper Fidelis" is more than just a motto -- it's a guiding principle, a way of life.

Now then ... moving on, we have two letters, F and I.

Answer: fit

The answer is "fit."

Feeble attempts at humor -- on my part, not his -- aside, Charles Darwin's cameo appearance was primarily utilitarian. The little spiel about the word and its superlative was there to allude to the fact that the superlative form of "fit" is, naturally, "fittest" -- as in "survival of the."

"Fit" is one of those nice words that can function as more than one part of speech, so while some angered people might throw more tangible things, like crockery, I chose to have Darwin throw a fit. (I took some "artistic liberties" with his personality. I'm sure Darwin was a perfectly pleasant man.)

Having added a T, we now have three letters in tow -- F, I, T. Onward and upward and all that!

Answer: gift

The word is "gift."

There was a bit of wordplay going on in the question -- "present" is a synonym for "gift," of course. Also, I'll explain the parenthetical remark about the German language, in case it seemed a bit cryptic. Of course, people do indeed enjoy receiving a gift -- but in German, the word "Gift" means "poison"! This is an example of what linguistics calls a "false friend" -- a word that means one thing in one language, but in another language, means something entirely different -- because the two have very-similar or even identical spellings and/or pronunciations. (Another example of a false friend is the person who tried to give you poison!)

Now that we've added a G and moved from "fit" to "gift," we move on to the halfway point.

Answer: grift

The word is "grift."

The origin of this word is kind of unclear -- it seems to be a variation of "graft," which basically refers to any shady or unlawful practice -- like bribery, trickery, or extortion -- to gain something. Interestingly, the term is applied not just to money or businesses but also to political corruption or deceit, such as to gain influence or power.

"Grift" specifically, however, is a bit more nuanced of a word, as its use really is specific to using trickery or deceit to obtain money. There are lots of similar terms for the act of swindling someone -- think "con game" or "scam."

Even though there's debate as to the etymology of both "graft" and "grift," it is interesting that "grift" was specifically mentioned -- in 1914 -- as a slang term in the criminal underground. Nowadays, the word isn't used much, though it's somewhat more common in the derived term "grifter", which refers to con artists and the like.

Note that "The New York Times" and Wordsmith.org both helped provide some of the info about the origins of these words.

Moving right along, that adds the letter R to the previous word ("gift"), so next up is a six-letter word.

Answer: fright

The answer is "fright."

There is, of course, no dearth of six-letter words, but if you've been following the previous five without much trouble, you probably knew how to use the existing letters to significantly narrow down the possibilities. There were a few clues along the way -- as most people know, "acrophobia" means "fear of heights." This does double-duty as a hint -- if you think of "phobia," you think of "fear," which is a synonym for "fright" -- and by happy coincidence, that rhyms with "height."

The whole little shtick about conquering one's fear is more than just a pep talk -- obviously, nobody is going to be afraid of a silly little quiz. It was a bit of fun, but also a subtle nod toward "fright" by invoking a few words that rhyme with it -- hence the advice to "heed my cadence."

The letter H has now joined our little ragtag company of letters, so unless I've completely forgotten how to count, our next destination will be a seven-letter word.

Answer: fighter

The answer is "fighter."

All right, this was a bit of a playground of odd clues. (Don't worry, we'll soon enough be done with all this mountainous mischief.) To be clear, the first few lines of this question were mostly just for fun. The rest of it was describing certain types of fighters -- starting with the "military aircraft," referring to a fighter jet.

I threw in the word "bellicose" to call to mind someone who's combative, aggressive, or just plain inclined to fight. (Speaking of "bellicose" -- it shares the same Latin root as the adjective "antebellum." "Bellum" means "war," so as "antebellum" literally means "before the war," the word "bellicose" ["bellicus" is the Latin] means "warlike.")

Anyhow, the other types of fighters being alluded to are -- in order -- soldiers, firefighters and bullfighters. I could have been slightly less abstract in my wording, but between the other clues given, I jumped at the opportunity for a little alliteration.

We've now added an E to the previous word ("fright"), so we're seven down and three more to go.

Answer: freights

The answer is "freights."

Just for a change of pace, I tried to be a bit more straightforward, but that's neither here nor there. Actually, I found this sort of an interesting word, because I found myself reflecting that ordinary or commonplace words can sometimes become odd-sounding or forgettable when you use a different form of the word.

Sometimes, when a word is pluralized, elongated, abbreviated or otherwise changed slightly, the original can start to look or sound slightly "odd." I think our minds tend to notice even small semantic changes. When I think of a seafaring vessel, it sounds natural to say "cargo ship" or "freighter," but somehow the word "freight" just isn't as easy to call to mind. But I digress.

"Freight" can be used various ways uses -- as a verb, or either a singular or collective noun. The plural, though, kind of becomes a special case -- while I suppose nothing says it has to be a one-trick pony, the only usage I've seen of "freights" is as a shortening of "freight trains."

The only other thing worth noting, and it's fairly obvious, is just that the line about "concentrate ... create" was a deliberate rhyme to point folks to "freight," though as I made clear, the plural form was the only valid answer -- after all, that continues the established sequence of creating a chain of words, each one letter longer than the previous one.

So with the letter S added to the letters in "fighter," all that remains now is a nine-letter word and the final, ten-letter one.

Answer: gearshift

The answer is "gearshift."

All right, all right, I dabbled in some (faint) humor again -- so sue me. When you're this far up a mountain, there's no turning back now, so dedicated climbers had better be inclined for a steep incline near the end. ... What? You say we're not really all that high up? Okay, fine -- just PRETEND the mountain is a really small one. Or a big one. You say molehill, I say mountain -- but the Mister Rogers says it makes no difference when you're just making believe!

To clarify one thing: Some people write "gearshift" as two words, and others use "gear stick" or "gear lever," but I specified "one word," and you can't form the alternate terms from the letters we've been building from, so "gearshift" is the only one that works.

Anyway, I was going for a bit of double-meaning in hinting at the word. If you spin the letters around (and add an S), you get the verb-phrase form, "shift gears," which is obviously applicable to automobiles -- since that's what the transmission-connected lever in question is doing. But we also often use "shift gears" or "switch gears" figuratively -- we stop doing something one way and take a different approach. My mention of "change direction" was a paraphrased nod to that saying.

By now, you can probably tell I am definitely not an auto mechanic -- but then again, most people reading these quiz questions wouldn't much care for a convoluted technical discussion anyhow, so it all works out. Or at least that's what I'll keep telling myself.

Now that the letter A has joined FREIGHTS, we're nine letters along and the last one remains.

Answer: farsighted

The answer is "farsighted."

To quote John Charles Daly, the beloved original presenter of the panel show "What's My Line?" in the '50s and '60s, "That's ten down and no more to go."

This final question was a little bit of a turnabout from the others, at least in terms of how it was presented. Instead of more-directly saying "here's your clue," I just let the mini-narrative I've been playing with do the job for me. I'm not *actually* farsighted, but it did strike me as a funny little twist, to suggest that a person who can't see nearby objects has been guiding people up a mountain. (Remember, suspension of disbelief. Just humor me.)

Did you know that whereas the formal term for nearsightedness is myopia, farsightedness is called hyperopia? (Until I started writing this quiz, I didn't!) ... Well, it could be worse. At least I don't have a problem with depth perception, or I'd *really* have been in trouble!