Unusual and Obscure Words Trivia

1. The U.S. Air Force song, "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder", ends "In echelon we carry on! Hey! Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!" What is meant by "echelon"?

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' E Words

Answer: forces in a diagonal line

Captain Robert Crawford wrote "The Army Air Corps Song" in 1939. The words "Army Air Corps" were replaced by the words "U.S. Air Force" concurrently with the change in that branch's name. An echelon formation is an arrangement of forces diagonally, each unit to one side and slightly behind the other. The formation was used for infantry and cavalry by Hannibal, Alexander the Great, and the Confederate army at the Battle of Gettysburg. Ships and aircraft may be similarly deployed in echelon. The term entered English in the 18th century from the French "eschelon", meaning the rung of a ladder, which probably derived from the Latin "scala", meaning stairs.

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' D Words

Answer: fearless, with bravado

The adjective dauntless means without fear, bold, brave, and unintimidated. It is not a popular usage; the reference in "Rocky and Bullwinkle" is tongue in cheek. The prefix "daunt-" derived (in about the 13th century) from the Old French "danter", meaning to fear. The suffix "-less" is used to form words meaning without, absent, or free from. Dauntless has been used in English from the late 16th century.

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' C Words

Answer: related to a snake, snakelike

Jalcanaius Fostus recalls an event nine years prior in which Helteranius meant to attack him from the rear. He describes this treachery as done "with cunning colubrine and malice viperine and sleights serpentine." He means that Heltreranius is a snake. The Modern English word "colubrine" derives from a Portuguese word imported from the Latin "colubra" meaning snake. Merriam Webster says it "slithered into the English language in the 16th century" for which observation they should be ashamed.

From Quiz Portmanteau? Don't Mind if I Do

Answer: Foon

A "spork" has the round shape of a spoon with tines like a fork. Samuel Francis patented the first spork in 1874. His design also included the edge of a knife. "Spork" didn't make it into the dictionary until 1909.

From Quiz Can You Define These Words 2

Answer: Fork

For those of you who love gardening, there's nothing quite as satisfying as digging up a pesky weed or turning over rich soil with a garden fork to aerate it, is there? And nothing like the aroma of that lovely rich soil as well. They should bottle it. Garden forks are also known as pitchforks. A common sight out in the fields in days gone by was farmhands tossing cut hay up onto wagons with their yelves. Today that is all done by machinery. Less back breaking work, of course, but not nearly as picturesque looking. Yelve was a word in use for at least 800 years in European countries, but began to fade from the everyday from the late 19th century, probably coinciding with the rise of the agricultural machines that replaced manual labour.

From Quiz Ten Very Unusual Words

Answer: Meditation practised while gazing at your navel

Omphaloskepsis is a meditation method from the East, found for the most part in the Hindu belief structure. Those who practise this trance invoking skill go off into a deep trance while staring fixedly at their belly buttons. Unfortunately, those of us who are of a slightly chubbier frame than the average can't even see our navels, let alone practise staring at them.

From Quiz Weird Words Born in the USA

Answer: absquatulate

Absquatulate means to depart in a hurry, often taking something along, or to abscond. It came from a trend in America in the 1830s when people decided to put words together to sound like they came from Latin origins; so added to the word 'squat' or stay, was the prefix 'ab-' meaning off or away and the verb ending '-ulate' suggesting a quick departure. It is rarely used nowadays, but I find it quite expressive and am hoping for a comeback.

From Quiz Poppycock and Balderdash!

Answer: A sunfish

The sunfish is the largest and heaviest fish that is not made of cartilage. Its scientific name is mola mola, which gave the sunfish its nickname. It weighs around 1,000 kg! If you guessed the rear end of the mole, the rest of the quiz is not going to go well.

From Quiz An Iota of Obscure Words

Answer: A member of an old German Anabaptist sect

Abecedarians were members of an old German sect who pooh-poohed all human knowledge and believed that if God wanted them to learn anything, he would reveal it to them in visions. They believed that even learning the alphabet was a form of worshipping idols. I know some students today who would simply love to join a sect such as this. Abecedarian is also the name given to a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet.

From Quiz Start a New Dictionary

Answer: A sound made by bagpipes

The word most associated with skirling is the high, haunting, and rather beautiful, sound that the bagpipes make when played. The word has also been used to refer to shrill laughter or screams, none of which is particularly flattering when associated with bagpipe music. Then again, some people could be said to laugh like bagpipes instead. In one of the old English dialects, a skirl is also a small trout or salmon.

From Quiz Misleading Words

Answer: A tree which produces catkins

A pussywillow is a small tree which is native to Europe, the north west of Asia and the northern parts of the USA. It produces lovely fluffy little flowers known as catkins. When the leaves emerge after the catkins have finished blossoming, they're a lovely rich green colour, greatly favoured in Chinese decorations in particular. In many northern European countries, because palm trees do not grow well in such climates, flowering pussywillow branches are used as substitutes during the Christian celebration of Palm Sunday.

From Quiz It's a whatch-amacallit, you know?

Answer: A thick porridge

The word loblolly seems to come from combining lob, a Yorkshire word meaning to boil, and lolly, an old Englisjh word for a soup or stew. The term also came to be applied to a swampy area, where the footing was similar to that of a cooked gruel. In the days of sail the assistant to a ship's surgeon was often called the loblolly boy, in reference to the food he would serve to sick and injured sailors.

From Quiz Bodacious Word Endings

Answer: gallinaceous

Gallinaceous means "resembling domestic fowls and pheasants"; camphoraceous has to do with camphor; avaricious means greedy. The hens' eggs are nutritious, one hopes, not nonnutritious.

From Quiz Loads of One Letter

Answer: atalaya

It is a type of watchtower. It is also the longest word to contain more than half As in the OWL Dictionary.

From Quiz Unusual Letter Combinations

Answer: savvy

Some other words containing double Vs in the OWL are revving and skivvies.

From Quiz Daffy Definitions

Answer: Property by which light produces chemical changes

Perhaps the adjective, actinic, would have sounded more familiar? The property of actinism is best illustrated in photographic film, in which chemical changes form an image in response to light. The clue 'bright idea' was intended to give you the comic book idea of a light bulb. The 'artistic movement' and 'infective mechanism' are inventions; the 'combined power' is a loose description of synergy.

From Quiz "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" and Me

Answer: zophori and friezes

All of these are architectural words, however a frieze is a "horizontal band that runs above doorways and windows or below the cornice. The frieze may be decorated with designs or carvings." And a zophori is a frieze that has "representations of people or animals."

From Quiz Defining Words

Answer: a disease

When used as a noun, farcy is a disease of animals, usually but not always of horses. It has similar symptoms to glanders. It was first used in the late 15th century in Britain. If used as a verb, farcy means to stuff.

From Quiz More Marvellous Meanings

Answer: Red ochre

This is a name for red ochre. It was used to mark sheep (and still is in some places), particularly after mating to show which ewes had been served. Thomas Hardy describes its use in his book "The Return of the Native" where there is a character called Diggory Venn who is a ruddleman or reddleman. Because his clothes and person are stained red some believe him to be the devil. It can also be used as a verb - as in to colour with ruddle, to ruddle.

From Quiz (Ety)Mological Miscellany

Answer: I walk on the soles of my feet

Plantigrade can be an adjective and mean walking fully on the soles of the feet or it can be used as a noun to describe an animal that does this, thus humans are plantigrade. It comes from Latin from plantar (relating to the feet) and gradus (walking). So, no, I wasn't being insulted at all!

From Quiz Goofy Words

Answer: Sickness or behavior resulting from overeating or drinking, particularly alcoholic beverages.

The word "crapulent" is from the Latin word "crapulentus" meaning "very drunk" or "sick from drinking".

From Quiz From the Hidden Depths (of the dictionary)

Answer: A snail

Rather ordinary, but I like it.

From Quiz All Boggled Up II

Answer: A nuisance

A bane is someone or something that is a nuisance or causes death. It comes from the Old English 'bana', a slayer or cause of death.

From Quiz More Fun with Words

Answer: stretching

Specifically, the stretching motion associated with yawning. I guess if you stretch without yawning, it's just plain "stretching".

From Quiz Unusual Words and their Meanings - No. 2

Answer: A radioactive element

A Francium is a radioactive element of the alkali metal group. It was first identified in France!

From Quiz Unusual Words and their Meanings

Answer: A diving bird with a long neck

A grebe is any diving bird of the family Podicipedidae, with a long neck, lobed toes, and almost no tail.

From Quiz Odd Words

Answer: Like felt

This is from the Latin pannus which means cloth

From Quiz Fun with Words

Answer: On a sundial

A gnomon is the raised part of a sundial that makes the shadow. Definitely not an everyday word!

From Quiz Rare Words

Answer: Cheiropompholyx

Cheiropompholyx is a common but ugly eczema caused by sweaty hands...or a vesicular palm....Monoplegia is another word for a writer's cramp, let me see you try to work all of the words into one sentence.

From Quiz Difficult Words

Answer: syphilitic wem

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