Two Will Go Into One Trivia Quiz

Answer: Runaway

When you move with speed on foot, you run, and if the team isn't playing a home game, it's playing an away game. You could say Shannon's 1961 song was a runaway hit. 'Runaway' was covered by some 200 singers, and received over 2,000,000 airplays. Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Answer: stairway

One step in a flight is stair, and a method is a way of doing something. Widely considered to be one of the greatest rock songs of all time, 'Stairway to Heaven' was released by Led Zeppelin in 1971. It is probably the most played song on FM radio stations in the U.S.

Moreover, it has been covered by a wide variety of artists in any number of musical genres - from Dolly Parton's country/bluegrass version to Pat Boone's very odd (in my opinion) lounge singer styling. Then there's Rolf Harris on the wobble board, the London Symphony Orchestra, jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan, and Native American singer Jana whose techno version of STH won the Nammy (North American Native Music Award) for best Song in 2002.

There's even a very strange version recorded on 'The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn' by Dave Grohl, lead singer of The Foo Fighters. Grohl forgot the lyrics and the audience jumped in to sing along with him! The song was written by Robert Plant (lyrics) and Jimmy Page (music).

Answer: capsize

The word for headwear is cap, and small-medium-large describes size. According to my Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, the word capsize comes from the Spanish capuzar, meaning to sink (a ship).

Answer: castaway

The people in a play make up the cast, and if you're not at home, you're away. Robinson Crusoe is probably the most famous castaway. For some reason, the Tom Hanks movie title was 'Cast Away', but it's perfectly legit - and more common - to spell it as one word when it applies to the person or thing cast away.

Answer: breakfast

A short respite is a break, and if you're speedy, you're fast. As a former teacher, I believe that breakfast should be mandatory for everyone of school age. Every teacher knows that you can't fill the mind if the stomach is empty.

Answer: farthing

Far - not near, and thing - an object. The farthing was worth one-quarter of a penny. When they were first minted in 1222, farthings were made of silver. By the 19th century, they were copper. Farthings were last minted in 1956, and were taken out of circulation in 1960. (My thanks to Funtrivia member maygrayuk for the information on the last minting of farthings and their removal from circulation.)

Answer: chicken

Chic is the French word, ken is the Scottish word, and in my opinion the chicken is neither elegant nor knowing. Having had a lot to do with chickens in my youth, I consider them just slightly ahead of grass as far as brains go. The English word chicken has nothing to do with the French and Scottish words, though.

It derives from the Old English cicen, meaning a young fowl, and who knows where they got it from.

Answer: Brandywine

Alcoholic beverage number one - brandy; alcoholic beverage number two - wine. The Battle of Brandywine was fought on September 11, 1777, and about 3,000 Continental Army and British soldiers died that day. General Washington had hoped to prevent the British under General Howe from taking Philadelphia, but he failed.

The Brandywine River is on the road from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and Chadds Ford provided the safest crossing. Our word brandy, by the way, is a shortened version of the original name of the spirit called brandywine.

Answer: gridiron

The word meaning traffic jam these days is gridlock, of course, and the metal is iron. Legend has it that Laurence, a Roman deacon, was roasted to death on a gridiron in 258 AD. At one point, so the story goes, he suggested that his torturers turn him over because he was done on one side.

There is no historical basis for this at all. In fact, the preferred method of killing Christians at the time was the trusty sword (I guess the lions had eaten their fill!) Still, the legend persists. The American football field is often referred to as the gridiron because the lines marking the field look like the bars on a gridiron.

Answer: damask

The word has nothing to do with the two ordinary English words that comprise it: dam - which can mean the female parent, ( or a means of blocking a stream or river, or that uncomfortable rubber thingy that the dentist puts in one's mouth) - and ask, the synonym for enquire. Damask was first woven in Damascus, Syria, and is used mostly today for making tablecloths and napkins.