Looting and Polluting Trivia Quiz

Answer: leak sleek

The homophones in this instance are leak and (s)LEEK. The leek is a member of the onion family and is a national symbol of Wales. It is traditionally worn on St David's Day (March 1st); legend has it that St David once ordered his troops to wear the vegetable on their helmets for identification purposes.

Leaks and spillages are one of the major causes of pollution world wide - particularly when oil is the substance involved. Well publicised disasters include the Exxon Valdez incident in Prince William Sound in 1989 and the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Answer: maid pomade

(Po)MADE is a homophone of maid. You won't need me to tell you that 'made' is the past tense of 'make' - to produce or prepare something.

In previous centuries, most rich families would have employed a maid - and in the case of the richest, many different types of maid. In addition to the housemaids, kitchen maids and scullery maids keeping the household running there were also lady's maids. These servants would have been responsible for helping their employer to dress, including styling their hair - creating a beautiful, sleek appearance would probably have been expected (and they may or may not have used pomade to achieve it)!

Answer: dye foodie

The homophone of dye is (foo)DIE - a word with a multitude of meanings including the ending of life, a deep desire for something ("to die for"), to decline ("the volume died down") or the small cube used in games of chance.

The use of hair dye isn't just a modern phenomenon - there is evidence that the ancient Egyptians used henna to change their hair colour, so it's very possible that the practice has been around for over 3,500 years! Modern hair dyes however tend to be based on complex chemistry and need to be used with some caution - allergic reactions to them can be severe and people have died as a result.

Answer: ate freight

(Fr)EIGHT is the homophone of ate in this case. Obviously this is a number, but some dictionary definitions go a bit further and choose descriptions along the lines of "the sum of five and three", "the product of two and four" or even "the result of 4,576 divided by 572". I'll stick with just calling it 'a number' if that's ok with you...

Food makes up a significant chunk of the world's freight every year. However, the benefits of home grown (or close-to-home grown) produce to the environment are often cited. One commonly mentioned figure is the concept of "food miles", which is aimed at raising awareness of the CO2 emissions (and other environmental impacts) associated with the different modes of transporting food over long distances.

Answer: load explode

The homophone of load is (exp)LODE. A lode can be a vein of ore-bearing rock, a rich source of something, or (in Britain) a watercourse or channel.

Etymologically, the term 'lode' comes from the Old English 'lad' (watercourse), which itself derived from 'load' - so in this case the two homophones are closely related words despite the difference in meaning that now exists between them. By contrast, 'explode' derives from the Latin 'ex', meaning 'out', and 'plaudere' meaning 'to clap' - a good onomatopoeic description of the sound of an explosion.

Answer: rows grouse

Interestingly the word 'rows' is a homograph in its own right - homographs being words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and may well be pronounced differently. The 'rows' in question here is a homophone of (g)ROUSE - meaning to awaken or excite. The other meaning of 'rows' - lines of things or to propel a boat with oars - would be a homophone of 'rhos' (the plural of the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet).

The grouse family doesn't just include birds known as grouse (such as the red grouse or the black grouse) but capercaillies, ptarmigans and prairie chickens as well. They are found across the northern hemisphere and are commonly hunted for both food and sport. In the UK the grouse shooting season begins on August 12th each year, a date that has since become known as "the glorious twelfth" - although the grouse probably disagree with that assessment of the day.

Answer: deer endear

Deer and (en)DEAR are the two homophones in question in this question. 'Dear' has several meanings including precious or loved, expensive, or as a term of endearment applied to a loved one.

Deer are members of the Cervidae family, which explains why - if cattle are bovine, pigs are porcine and sheep are ovine - they are referred to as cervine. For most deer species it is only the males that grow antlers, the exception is the reindeer (or caribou) where the females are also antlered.

Answer: beau rainbow

Beau and (rain)BOW are the homophones. 'Bow' is another of those pesky homographs - the meaning that shares the same pronunciation as beau is a decorative looped knot or a weapon that fires arrows. The other version is a homophone of 'bough' (such as of a tree) that means to bend over in a sign of respect or the front of a ship.

Rainbows are an image of the colours of the spectrum (from red to violet) that generally appear as an arc in the area of the sky opposite the position of the sun. Contrary to their name, you don't necessarily need rain in order to be able to see a rainbow - other forms of water in the air such as mist, spray or dew will work as well. (However, differentiating between mistbows, spraybows and dewbows would be unnecessarily pedantic!)

Answer: peace altarpiece

(Altar)PIECE is a homophone of peace and means a section or part of an object. It can also refer to a whole object, such as a piece of artwork or a piece of music.

An altarpiece (also sometimes known as a reredos or retable) can be a painting, sculpture or relief carving and is usually contained within a wooden frame. They depict religious subjects, such as the saints or Christ, and are placed behind the altar (or communion table) in one of the holiest areas of the building. Altarpieces date back around 1,000 years, with some of the earliest examples being relatively simple painted panels. Famous works include the 'Assumption of the Virgin' by Titian located in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice and 'The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb' by Hubert and Jan van Eyck in St. Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent. Many pieces have also been removed from their original religious setting and distributed between museums and galleries worldwide.

Answer: rood intrude

In addition to being a crucifix hung over the rood (or choir) screen of a church, the term 'rood' can also refer to an archaic British land measurement equivalent to a quarter of an acre. Its homophone (int)RUDE means to be offensive, ill-mannered or impolite, which is fitting since intruding into either someone's home or life is also distinctly offensive.

Sadly theft can be a major problem for church authorities worldwide. The presence of valuable gold or silver dishes, chalices or candlesticks, along with ready cash in collection boxes can be a major temptation for thieves and are easily looted since they tend to be relatively small and portable. In other cases the actual fabric of the building is taken by thieves - in the UK, the high value of scrap metals such as lead and copper in the early 2010s led to a spate of metal thefts; church roofs and pipes proved to be a particularly attractive target.