10 More Original Questions Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hermes

Hermes had quite a collection of interesting accoutrements with which he was associated. Aside from his winged petasus, he also carried a staff called a caduceus (that he had acquired from Apollo) and donned winged sandals on his feet called 'talaria'. I suppose all the wings helped increase his speed, which is important for a messenger god, no doubt!

Answer: Pesto

The name 'pesto', which is applied to a wonderful sauce of crushed basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic and other ingredients, and goes perfectly with fettuccine, is from the Italian word 'pestare', which means 'pound, crush'. The very best way to prepare a good pesto sauce is to toss the required ingredients into a mortar and crush them with a pestle, thus the name.

Answer: Thumb

The term 'alula' comes from the Latin for 'small wing', and is pluralized 'alulae'. Typically, a bird's alula arises as the first joint on a bird's wing, where a small tuft of quill feathers appears. The alula contains homologous bones with the human thumb, but naturally does not serve the same function. The alula is also known as the 'spurious' or 'bastard' wing.

Answer: Retiarius

The retiarii would carry a net (the name retiarius comes from the Latin word for net, 'rete') which they would use to trap their opponents before coming in for the kill with either a trident or a dagger. A myrmillo would typically carry a sword and shield, as would a samnis, while a thrax would wield a scimitar along with a shield. Men who took part in gladiatorial combat with beasts were known as 'bestiarii'. Shockingly, many gladiators, including the emperor Commodus, entered combat voluntarily.

Answer: Clarinet

The chalumeau (pl. chalumeaux) derived its name, which is French, originally from the Latin word 'calamellus', which means 'little reed'. This was the first single-reeded instrument, and the clarinet was developed directly from it in the early 1700s.

Answer: Turtle shell

The word 'carapace', originally from the Spanish (carapacho), refers to the very familiar hard upper shell of a turtle or tortoise, while the plastron (from the Italian 'piastrone', meaning 'breastplate') forms the hard undershell that finishes a turtle's 'armor'. Incidentally, a plastron is also a protective chest pad worn by fencers.

Answer: Cadmus

Cadmus was son of Agenor, the King of Phoenicia. The story goes that he took the customs of Phoenicia with him to Boeotia, on the Greek mainland, and established the city of Thebes. There he introduced the original 16 letter alphabet that would eventually develop into the Greek alphabet as we know it today. And, of course, the Roman writing system arose from the Greek letters, and in turn the letters we use today arose from the Latin alphabet.

This quiz was brought to you in part by Cadmus.

Answer: Chaebol

Top Korean chaebol (which is a combination of two Chinese characters meaning 'money' and 'clan') include world famous organizations such as Hyundai, Samsung and Daewoo, and lesser known companies such as LG, Hanwha and Hanjin. Though the chaebol have been a boon to the South Korean economy for many years now, there have been many criticisms of the system, especially with the downturn in the economy of the late 1990s - early 2000s. The Japanese equivalent term is 'keiretsu'.

Answer: David Bushnell

Bourne, van Drebbel and Borelli were all certainly innovators in the field of submarine technology, but it was David Bushnell's 'Turtle', developed in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775, that was the first submarine employed in warfare. In 1776 it was used to attack (ultimately unsuccessfully) the British warship called 'The Eagle' in New York harbor. A device meant to drill a hole in the side of warships failed to work properly, and the mission aboard the single-man, hand-cranked submarine was abandoned.

Answer: Burma Road

The Burma Road was opened during the late 1930s as a way for the British and Americans to continue trade with China, engaged at the time in war with Japan. The road continued to be employed as a way of supplying the desperate Chinese nationalists during the early years of World War II, until it was captured by the Japanese in 1941. Allied forces did not recapture the road until 1945, not long before the end of the war. I hope these questions tickled your fancy, and if so, please feel free to try my many other quizzes in the general category and elsewhere. Thank you for playing!