Have We "Met" Before? Trivia Quiz

Answer: methadone

Methadone is a synthetic opioid drug mainly used to treat opiate (in particular heroin) addiction. Like other opioids, it is a powerful painkiller, often prescribed for chronic pain. Though highly effective against cravings and withdrawal symptoms during treatment for narcotic addiction, methadone has been involved in many cases of poisoning, often with fatal results.

The word "methadone" entered English in 1947, when the drug (developed in Germany in the 1930s) was first marketed in the US. Its name is an abbreviation of the much longer "diMETHyl-Amino-Diphenyl-heptanONE".

Answer: methodical

Also (though rarely) found in the form "methodic", "methodical" is an adjective derived from "method". It describes the quality of being orderly and systematic, or doing things in such a way. First attested in 1570, the word came into English from the French "méthodique" with the meaning of "characterized by method", and in the 17th century acquired its common modern meaning of "systematic".

The root of this word is the Greek "methodikós", the adjective from the noun "methodos" - originally meaning "pursuit, following after", later "inquiry".

Answer: métier

As its spelling reveals, "métier" was borrowed directly from French in the late 18th century. While in French, it means "job, occupation", or also "professional experience", in English it has acquired a meaning very similar to that of "forte" - that is, a calling or pursuit someone is truly good at.

In etymological terms, métier is related to "ministry", as both words have their roots in the Latin word "ministerium", which originally meant "duty or office of a servant or attendant ("minister")". The shortened form "misterium" became "mistier" in Old French, and later evolved into the current word métier.

Answer: metonymy

Even if not everyone would readily recognize the word, metonymy is one of the most common figures of speech - widely employed not just in literature and journalism, but in everyday spoken language as well. Examples of metonymy are "the White House" to mean the President of the US or their administration, or "Fleet Street" for the British national press. A similar figure of speech is synecdoche, in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole - as in "wheels" for a car, or "blade" for a sword.

Metonymy comes from the Greek preposition "metá" ("beyond" or "after") and the suffix "-onymia" (derived from "onoma", meaning "name"), which often appears in words denoting figures of speech. The literal meaning of the word - first attested in English in 1573 - is "change of name".

Answer: metheglin

Although somewhat reminiscent of the names of some pharmaceutical drugs, metheglin bears no etymological relationship to words such as "methyl" or "methane". It is, in fact, a much older word, derived from the Welsh "meddyglyn", meaning "healing liquor" ("meddyg" being related to Latin "medicus"). In the Middle Ages (and possibly even earlier), this alcoholic drink, made with mead (honey wine) infused with spices and herbs, was used mainly for medicinal purposes. The Welsh word became "metheglin" in Middle English; according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it was first attested in English in the 15th century.

Metheglin became popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, and is mentioned at least twice in Samuel Pepys' diary. Now it can be bought online from a number of sources, or made at home - if one has the time and the inclination to do so.

Answer: metathesis

From the Greek verb "metatithenai" ("transpose"), the word "metathesis" is primarily used in linguistics to refer to the alteration of the order of phonemes (sounds) in a word. This phenomenon frequently occurs in spelling or pronunciation errors - such as the spelling "calvary" when meaning "cavalry", or vice versa. Etymologically, many words have undergone metathesis in the passage from Old English to modern English: one prominent example is "bright", which originally comes from the Old English "beorht" through the form "bryht".

Metathesis is also used in chemistry to denote the exchange of bonds between two reacting chemical species: in this case, it is referred to as "salt metathesis reaction"

Answer: métis

Though now it may not be considered the most politically correct of words, the French loanword "métis" and its Spanish equivalent "mestizo" were used relatively frequently up to a few decades ago to refer to a person of mixed parentage - often the offspring of a person of European ancestry and a Native American one. In Canada, the word is spelled with a capital M, and denotes one of the three officially recognized Aboriginal peoples - the other two being the Inuit and the First Nations. The use of "métis" as a common rather than proper noun (thus spelled with a lowercase "m") is now rare, even in a historical perspective, because of its potentially contentious nature.

First used in English in 1810, métis comes from Late Latin "mixticius" ("of mixed race"), in turn derived from "mixtus", the past participle of the verb "miscere" ("mix"). The Spanish "mestizo" has been used in English for much longer, as it was first attested in the 1590s.

Answer: meticulous

Somebody who is meticulous shows the utmost attention to every detail, no matter how small. Like many other words of Latin origin, it tends to be used in higher-register contexts rather than in everyday communication. The rarely used noun derived from this adjective is "meticulousness", which replaced the earlier "meticulosity".

Interestingly, the Latin adjective "meticulosus", from which "meticulous" originated, meant "fearful" or "timid". Its root is the noun "metus" ("fear"), to which the suffix "-culosus" (probably by analogy with "periculosus", meaning "dangerous") was added. Indeed, meticulous people are often so because they are afraid of making mistakes. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the earlier meaning of this word fell into disuse in the early 18th century, and the current meaning of "overly careful" became prevalent around the 1820s, influenced by the French "méticuleux".

Answer: metroplex

"Metroplex" is the most recent of the words featured in this quiz, as it was first attested in English in 1956. It denotes a large, densely populated conurbation that includes at least two cities of equal importance, as well their suburban areas. A portmanteau word that blends "metro(politan)" and "(com)plex", metroplex was originally coined by an advertising agency for the Dallas-Forth Worth conurbation in North Texas.

Now the term is occasionally employed for large urban aggregations in countries such as China or the US. However, while still widely in use to refer to the Dallas-Forth Worth area, "metroplex" (sometimes spelled with a capital M) does not seem to be particularly popular - probably because there are already other words that can be used to describe such areas. Incidentally, the root word "metro-", now synonymous with "urban", comes from the Greek "meter" ("mother"), and is not related to the "metro-" in "metronome", which comes from "metron" ("measure").

Answer: mettle

"Mettle" is not just a homophone of "metal" - it was originally a spelling variant of it, first attested in English in the 1580s. Over time, however, while "metal" became primarily associated with chemical elements such as iron or copper and their alloys, "mettle" came to be used in a figurative sense, meaning "strength of spirit" or "stamina". The adjective "mettlesome" - a synonym of "courageous" - was first used in the 1660s. In modern English, "mettle" is generally used to suggest strength of character in the face of difficulty - as in the expression "test one's mettle".

"Metal" comes from the Greek "metallon" ("mine" or "quarry") via Latin "metallum".