Fractured Colors Trivia Quiz

Answer: magenta

Magenta is a dark, bright pink. In the 1960s when I was in junior high school, we used to wear this color with lime green. A midge is a tiny fly and "yenta" is Yiddish for a woman who gossips a lot.

Answer: lemon yellow

Lemon yellow is the color of lemon sherbet. Yolo is a California county.

Lemmings resemble hamsters with thicker, fluffier coats. They live in treeless northern climes. Their brown fur turns white during winter for camouflage. Lemmings are very prolific--a female has up to eight babies every five weeks. When lemming populations "explode," great numbers of lemmings may migrate to find food such as berries, lichen, and seeds. During their travels, many lemmings drown in lakes and rivers along the way. Lemmings live in cosy underground burrows that boast rest areas, "bathrooms," and nesting chambers. Lemmings use grasses, feathers, and musk ox wool to build their nests. Lemmings' many predators include weasels, Arctic foxes, and snowy owls. The number of young that snowy owls have each year depends on the lemming population--more lemmings equals more owlets.

Answer: aquamarine

Aquamarine is a pale bluish-green color. It's also the name of a green or blue-green gemstone.

Answer: chartreuse

Chartreuse is a brilliant yellow-green. When capitalized, Chartreuse is the trademark for a yellow-green liqueur.

Answer: vermilion

Vermilion is a vivid reddish orange. There are sweet bell peppers that are vermilion colored.

Answer: burnt umber

Umber (probably from the same word family as "umbrage," whose root means "shadow") is a brown earth used for artists' pigment. Burnt umber is of course darker than plain umber.

Answer: navy blue

I guess it's called navy blue because various navies have dark blue uniforms.

Answer: indigo

Indigo is a deep blue color--sometimes it is a little purplish. Indigo dye comes from indigo plants, which Europeans used to obtain from India ("indigo" derives from the Greek and Latin words for "India").

Answer: ivory

Ivory is a creamy white color. It's named after that hard, smooth, beautiful substance called ivory, of course. Ivory comes from elephants' tusks and it is VERY WRONG to purchase it in this day and age. A player informs me that "modern piano white keys are most definitely not made from ivory.

They are made from synthetic material, which in good quality keyboards simulates the look and feel of ivory. Ivorine is another term for this sort of material."

Answer: lavender

Lavender is a pale shade of purple. It's also a kind of mint plant with sweet-smelling purple flowers that are commonly used to perfume soaps, colognes, and sachets for ladies' dresser drawers.

Answer: cornflower blue

Cornflowers are an intense shade of medium blue, hence the color name. In flowery prose, rosy-cheeked blond children are often described as having "eyes of cornflower blue." Kerning is something that printers used to do with type--maybe they still do. I think it has to do with how close together the letters are. Baloo is of course the bear character who befriends Mowgli in Disney's "The Jungle Book." Baloo, a genial potbellied fellow, sings "The Bear Necessities," a cute song.

Answer: cherry red

Cherry red is a more pinkish or purplish red (rather than an orange red). It's my favorite shade of red. To me, it has a look of the 1950s.

Answer: mint green

Mint green is an ever-so-slightly dull pastel shade of green. Many hospital interiors and bridesmaids' dresses used to be mint green. I don't think it's as popular as it used to be.

Answer: powder pink

Powder pink is that lovely pale baby girl shade of pink.

Answer: turquoise

"Dirk" is a man's name; it's also a kind of knife. I think Macbeth had one, maybe. A koi is an ornamental carp. The actual plural form is "koi," but what the hey? Turquoise is blue-green. It's also a precious mineral. Native Americans of the Southwest U.S. make beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry.