A 'Flare' For English Trivia Quiz

Answer: carry

Carry is a Middle English word meaning to convey or to take along in transport. It is derived from the old North French "carier" meaning the same thing. The French word came from the Latin "carrum" meaning Celtic war chariot.

There is a girl's name that sounds the same as carry. Carrie as a girl's name was originally a shorter form of Caroline or Carol, both of which are female forms of the German Karl, which means "free man"

Perhaps the most famous Carrie was a character in Stephen King's horror novel "Carrie" (1974). This was made into an even scarier movie in 1975 and made Sissy Spacek an international star.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising's 1nn1 who read the book and saw the movie as a teenager and was scared both times.

Answer: wane

The word wane means to get smaller or weaker. The moon, after it is full, wanes every night until it cannot be seen in the night sky. This is called a new moon. The word comes from a description of boards used in building - a board with a missing edge or other part is called a wane.

The name Wayne sounds like wane. It can be a first name or the last name - Bruce Wayne's secret identity was Batman, and there was a famous actor called John Wayne who was in many western movies.

Wayne as a last name, comes from a word for a person who built wagons. Wayne can be a first name - a very well-known hockey player was Wayne Gretzky.

Player pusdoc's enthusiasm waned on this topic once the topic of hockey arose.

Answer: rustle

Rustle is a verb dating back to the 14th century, meaning to make noise while moving. It is unclear where the word originated, possibly Germany. In the mid-to-late 1800s Rustle was used in an additional way. It took the meaning "to steal", especially farm animals. That extra meaning began in the western United States.

Rustle sounds like the proper name Russell. This name has been attributed to Old French. "Rousel" means red-haired and the short form "rous" is for red. Some people believe that Russell has British roots in the word Rufus, also meaning red-haired.

Some people with the surname Russell that became famous include: American actress Jane Russell and American comedian Nipsey Russell.

Jaknginger's husband is Russ, short for Russell.

Answer: wrecks

Wreck, from the Old Norse "reka" (drive or push), means ruin or destroy, and was originally used for ships (hence the term shipwreck). It is related to other negative words such as wrack (as in "wrack and ruin"), wreak (as in wreak havoc), and wretch.

Rex sounds the same as wrecks. Rex as a man's given name has a completely different origin, as it comes from the Latin word for "king". The most notorious of dinosaur species is named Tyrannosaurus rex (T-Rex for short), meaning tyrant lizard king.

Rex Harrison, on the other hand, was an English actor whose best-known role is that of Professor Henry Higgins in the musical film "My Fair Lady", for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor (1965).

LadyNym wrote this question, trying not to wreck it.

Answer: fill

To fill means to put something in an empty space until there's no room left. As a verb, a doing word, you can fill your glass with water. Fill can also be a noun, the name of something unimportant. Use rocks or poor soil as fill or filler in a hole before putting good soil on top.

The word fill comes from an Old German word 'fullaz" which means entire, or full.

Phil, spelled differently but sounding the same, is a short version of the name Philip or Phillip. In the Greek language it comes from, it means lover of horses.

On the TV cartoon "Rugrats", Phil DeVille is one of the main characters. His twin sister, Lil, sometimes calls him Phillip.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 used this question to fill an empty space in the quiz, and will now go and fill her empty stomach.

Answer: kneel

Kneel comes from the noun knee, a word of very ancient Indo-European origin that exists with similar words in many European languages. It means to fall on your knees, as people often do during church services.

Neil is a given name for a man that has got nothing to do with knees but it sounds the same as kneel: in fact, it is the English form of the Irish name Niall, which means champion (though other meanings have also been suggested).

Many people bearing this name have been champions in their field, but probably no one more than Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut who was the very first person to set foot on the Moon on the historic date of 21 July 1969.

This winning question was championed by LadyNym.

Answer: mow

The word mow most commonly refers to cutting grass, but any tall plant that is soft like grass can be mowed, with a machine or by hand. The word can also mean to quickly knock down people or things. Since people have been mowing grass and crops for a long time, the word has been used just as long - it came from a word in Old English, "mowen," which is very close to the word we use.

Moe sounds like mow, and is a first name that is usually a shortened version of another name, such as Moses or Maurice. There is a character on "The Simpsons" named Moe Szyslak, and one of the comedy trio called "The Three Stooges" was Moe Howard.

Player pusdoc mowed down this information for Phoenix Rising's Red Crew.

Answer: clawed

Clawed is the past tense of to claw. Claw comes from Old English "clawian" meaning to scratch. There are similar words in Dutch ("klaauwen") and High German ("klawan"). An animal would need to have claws, to have clawed at the crocodile.

Claude is pronounced the same as clawed. It is a name of French origin,found more in France than elsewhere, and it means enclosure. It is usually thought of as a boy's name, but can also be used for a girl, though Claudia and Claudette are more common alternatives. Two famous Claudes are actor Claude Raines, who starred in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington", and the painter Claude Monet whose art included the famous "Water Lilies".

Red Crew's smpdit doesn't play spotty cats at card games, they can be cheetahs.

Answer: whinny

What noise does a horse make? Well; they can neigh, whicker, snort, squeal or whinny. Whinny is a noun (naming word) and a verb (doing word) and it comes from Middle High German ("neggen") to Middle English ("Neyen") to Old English ("Hnaegan") and is a word imitating the sound of the horse.

Winnie is a name that comes from Welsh. It sounds exactly like whinny (depending a bit on whereyou live!). It is generally a short form of other names, both for boys and girls, such as Winston, Edwina, Winifred or Guinevere. It means fair one, white, pure and happy.

Famous Winnies include Winnie the Pooh, who was named after a place called Winnipeg in Canada, and supermodel Winnie Harlow who was a contestant on "America's Next Top Model" in 2014.

Red Crew's smpdit has more Winnie the Pooh about her than a supermodel.

Answer: It has a homophone that is a person's name

Homophones are two or more words pronounced the same but different in meaning and spelling (e.g., where, wear).
Homonyms are two or more words with the same spelling or pronunciation, but with different meanings (e.g., a bat is a flying mammal; a bat is used to hit a baseball).

In this case, each correct answer was a verb, but each word was a homophone (sounds the same) of a first name. Names are nouns so in this quiz you can see how words that sound like each other can be both verbs and nouns but they are spelled differently.

If you look at the title of this quiz, it gives you a clue about what this quiz is about. It has the word FLARE which is not correct (Flare means a sudden burst of flame). The correct word was FLAIR, which means flashiness or catchiness. However, both words sound the same, so they are homophones.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.