O, My Goodness! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ozymandias

Shelley's poem not only presents the eventual decline of tyrants but establishes the point through a masterful use of irony. Ozymandias obviously had the words "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair" inscribed to instill fear in those who entered his kingdom and gazed upon its intimidating greatness. However, now human beings are filled with despair for a reason Ozymandias never intended. They look upon his "works" now and see nothing but a vast and empty desert. Nothing remains of his empire or his greatness except a statue's two "trunkless legs" and its frowning head that lies half-buried in the sand.

In real life, Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramses II, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt. He is often referred to as Ramses the Great and considered the most powerful pharaoh ever to have ruled Egypt. He ruled from 1279-1213 BCE. He more than likely was not as tyrannical as Shelley's poem would have its readers believe, for he was greatly celebrated by many long after his death. His consort Nefertiti has also been celebrated for a very long time.

Answer: otic

The word "otic" is derived from the Greek "otikos" and is used to describe an item that is found in or around an organism's ear or to describe an item that is to be used in or around the ear. For example, one may refer to "otic drops", an "otic solution", an "otic capsule", or an "otic ganglion". A derivative of a Latin word, "auricular" is synonymous with "otic".

"Otic" may also be used as a suffix, such as in the word "hypnotic", but in this case, the suffix has no connection to the word referring to "ear". It is simply the means of creating an adjective form of a noun ending in "osis", such as "hypnosis".

Answer: oeuvre

"Oeuvre" is borrowed from French and is an older derivative of the Latin "opus", both of which refer to "work". The word is usually used to refer to the entirety of all that a creative individual has produced. However, less commonly, the word may be used to refer to one specific work of art. "Oeuvre" occurs in other words, such as "manoeuvre" or "maneuver" (which translate essentially to mean "work of hands") or hors d'oeuvre" (which translates essentially to "apart from the work or main meal").

"Obloquy" is "strong public criticism or public abuse". An "opinicus" is a beast that appears on heralds; it looks like a griffin but all four of its legs are of a lion. "Ordo" refers to a musical phrase or to a calendar of events celebrated and practiced during the Christian season of Advent.

Answer: Oglethorpe

As a member of Parliament, James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785) chaired a committee that investigated abuses occurring in debtors' prisons and helped to initiate reforms that ultimately released these prisoners into cities where they could find no employment. This situation contributed to growing poverty and crime rates. Oglethorpe envisioned a colony in the New World where these people could move with their families and support themselves sufficiently and happily on 47-acre farms. However, settling of Georgia occurred much differently from the original dream. While poor people did settle, they were more often than not the "honorable" poor, men and women who had no criminal or troubled past. Furthermore, many of the settlers were pioneering Scotsmen, Jewish refugees, and religious refugees from France, Switzerland and Germany.

Oglethorpe also served as a British general who led British attacks from Georgia against Spanish forces in Florida during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Answer: oogenesis

"Oogenesis" is the creation of an ovum or the female egg cell or gamete. The process occurs in stages. First is oocytogenesis, the formation of immature egg cells in the fetus or newborn. This is later followed by ootidogenesis when the egg cells experience the process of cell division known as meiosis. The final stage is the mature ova, which are ready during puberty for fertilization.

An "ovariopexy" is a surgical procedure of elevating and affixing an ovary to the abdominal wall. I made up the words "oviparosis" and "oonovum".

Answer: Olmec

Geographically, the Olmec people lived in the area of Mexico presently occupied by the states of Tabasco and Veracruz. The name "Olmec" literally means "rubber people" in Aztec language of Nahuatl. It was mistakenly applied to the ancient culture by modern people who believed the art, artifacts, and ruins they had discovered belonged to a people the Aztecs referred to as "Olmec". Later, archaeologists discovered that these things belonged to a culture 2,000 years before the culture referred to by the Aztecs, but the misnomer continued nevertheless. The Aztecs used the word "Olmec" to refer to a contemporary people of their time who practiced the technique of extracting latex from a rubber tree.

The "bloodletting" referred to in the question was a practice of piercing or cutting oneself in soft tissue (such as the tongue or penis) for cultural or sociological purposes. Often the blood was scattered or collected on a substance that was then burned as an offering to the practicing culture's gods.

Answer: offal

"Offal" appears to have occurred in the English language during the time of late Middle English during the Medieval period, perhaps as a result of the combining of "off fall", referring to "that which falls off the butcher's block or table". Such a concept of "off fall" would most likely have been a derivative or translation of the Middle Dutch word "afval" or the Old Norse "affall", both of which meant "off fall" and referred to the waste or refuse following the butchering of animals.

Answer: oyg oyf oyg

"Och un vey" is used to express something similar to "Alas and woe". "Oy gevaldt" means something similar to "Oh, God", "Woe is me", or "Enough already". "Oy vey" literally means, "Oh, woe".

"Oyg oyf oyg", on the other hand, means "in private or face-to-face".

"Yiddish" translates to "Jewish" and refers to the language of the Ashkenazi Jews, the Jewish inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire of central and eastern Europe. The language is a combination of Germanic languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and some Slavic and Romance languages.

Answer: Osiris

Osiris, the god of transition (or resurrection or the afterlife), played a significant role in Egyptian mythology. After Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother Set, their sister Isis, who was also the wife Osiris, reassembled Osiris and resurrected him. However, she neglected to reattach his penis. After fashioning one out of gold, the two of them were able to create Horus before the resurrection spell ended and Osiris died again.

As Osiris was the god of resurrection, he was also associated with new plant life and growth as well as with the flooding of the Nile. Thus, when depicted in art, he was often given green or black skin (black being the color of the Nile flood plain).

Answer: ospreys

The osprey can be found on every continent on Earth but Antarctica. However, its presence in South America is usually only migratory. It typically adapts to any habitat near a body of water as long as there is an adequate supply of fish, which makes up ninety-nine percent of the bird's diet and contributes to its other names mentioned in the question.

Its vision is so powerful that it can spot fish under the surface of water from as high as 130 feet.