A Catacomb of CAT Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: prevaricate

To prevaricate is to be so deliberately ambiguous or vague as to mislead or withhold information; so it is a form of lying. The word 'prevarication" appeared in English in the late 14th century, to mean "divergence from a right course, transgression".

It came from Old French 'prevaricacion', that is, "breaking of God's laws, disobedience (to the Faith)". This came from the Latin 'praevaricationem', meaning "duplicity, collusion, or stepping out of line", from past-participle stem of 'praevaricari' meaning figuratively "to make a sham accusation, deviate" and literally "to walk crookedly". Broken down further, it's from 'prae' "before" and 'varicare' "to straddle", from 'varus' "bowlegged, knock-kneed". Though the noun appeared in the 14th century, the verb 'prevaricate', however, didn't appear until the 1580s.

Answer: caricature

The word "caricature", as a grotesque or ludicrous drawing of a person by exaggerating his or her characteristics, entered English in the 18th century directly from the French 'caricature', though the French borrowed it from the Italian 'caricatura' to describe such drawings.

It literally means "an overloading" and is derived from Vulgar Latin 'carricare', meaning "to load a wagon or cart", from 'carrus', a two-wheeled cart from which we get the modern word "car". From the 1680s, the Italian form had been used in English until the French form, for some reason, overtook it in the 18th century.

Answer: caterwauling

Caterwauling is very disagreeable howling or screeching, as from a cat in heat. Some time in the 14th century the verb emerged as 'caterwrawen', but the origin is disputed. Perhaps it was borrowed from Low German 'katerwaulen' ("to cry like a cat"). Or perhaps it formed in English itself from 'cater', which comes from Middle Dutch 'cater' ("tomcat") plus the Middle English 'waul' ("to yowl or howl"), which apparently came from Anglo-Saxon '*wrag' or '*wrah', meaning "angry".

The origin of the Anglo-Saxon is obscure, but it certainly seems to imitate the sound of an angry cat. (The asterisk means the word is hypothetical among etymologists.) The noun didn't appear until 1708.

Answer: embrocation

An embrocation is a liniment, that is, a drug, agent, or lotion for rubbing into the skin, particularly to relieve muscular stiffness or pain. The verb 'embrocate' entered the English language around the 1610s, from Medieval Latin 'embrocatus', the past participle of 'embrocare'. This in turn came from Late Latin 'embrocha', derived from Greek 'embrokhe' (meaning "lotion, fomentation"), from 'embrekhein', "to soak in, foment". The root 'brekhein' means "to water, wet, rain, send rain,", as 'brokhe' means "rain". This has an Indo-European root *mergh- meaning "to wet, sprinkle, rain", from which we get words like "submerge" and "emerge".

(The asterisk means the root is hypothetical.)

Answer: catadromous

The word comes from the Greek 'katá ' meaning "down, downwards, away" and the Greek 'dromos', from 'dremein' meaning "to run". Eels, for example, are catadromous, also spelled katadromous. They migrate down rivers to spawn in the sea. This is the opposite of anadramous fish like salmon, which migrate up rivers from the sea to spawn in fresh water (from 'ana-' which means "up").

Then there are those fish that migrate regularly between marine and fresh waters; these are diadromous. (The word 'diadrom' is an obsolete term for the completion of a course of a pendulum swing back and forth; likewise do the fish move back and forth between environments.)

Answer: rubrication

In the Middle Ages, rubricators were specialized scribes who added red headings or titles to manuscripts to distinguish one section from another (from which we get the term "rubrics", meaning "class, category, heading'). They would also sometimes make an intitial letter of a paragraph or section red. From these practices we get the phrase "red-letter day" (from the 14th century), referring to the marking of a saint's day in red letters in a calendar; now it means any memorably important, purposeful, or happy occasion.

It entered Middle English as 'rubrike' ("heading, title"), from from Old French rubrique, from Latin 'rubrīca' ("red chalk" or "red iron ochre") , from 'ruber', or rather the combining form 'rubr-', meaning "red".

Answer: scattershot

The word "scattershot" is a relatively new one in the English lexicon, having appeared around 1940 to refer to a gun charge meant literally to scatter its pellets when fired, and apparently used figuratively to mean generalized and indiscriminate only since 1959.

The word "scatter", however, is much older, emerging in the middle 12th century as a northern English variant of the Middle English 'schateren', which most likely came from the Vikings. The word "shot" is even older, as it seems to come from Anglo-Saxon 'scot' or 'sceot', from a proto-Germanic source 'skutan' (and there is a similar Old Norse word, 'skutr', from the same root, and then of course there's the modern German 'Schuss').

Answer: rustication

"Rustic" refers to rural or pastoral life and people, and usually implies lack of sophistication or refinement, and "rustication" can refer to the process of becoming this way. Rustication can also mean a style of masonry or brickwork that one would see in rustic settings, or deliberately done with a rough finish to make it look rustic.

In masonry in particular, the stonemason cuts or shapes blocks with deep-set joints and a rough-hewn face. Similarly, rusticating a pipe (for smoking, not for plumbing) means to remove material to give it a wood-grain finish and cover up flaws.

In the UK military, rustication happens when a person is posted or a unit is transferred from London or some other urban headquarters to elsehwere. When a university student is rusticated, he or she is temporarily expelled (as though sent into the countryside).

Answer: coruscating

To "coruscate" is to emit flashes of light, to sparkle and glitter, like a diamond coruscating by candlelight. It can also be applied to music, brilliantly and vivaciously played, and exhibiting virtuosity, like a pianist playing Liszt, coruscating throughout the concert hall.

The word entered English in 1705 directrly from the Latin 'coruscatus', past participle of 'coruscāre', meaning "to flash, glitter, or vibrate". The Italian words 'scherzando' and 'scherzo', used in music to refer to playing lightly, as though jumping about, and a short piece played in such a manenr, are from the same root. You may also have seen the word "coruscation" referring to the reflection of lightning on the clouds or of moonlight on the ocean.

Answer: cataphonics

The root 'cata-' from the Greek 'kata' usually means "down, through", but it can also mean "indicating reversal, opposition, degeneration, etc.". The rest of the word comes from the Greek word for sound. Although in the 21st century the word "phonics" is usually associated with teaching people to read by matching letters with their phonetic values, it is also an obsolete term for acoustics (the scientific study of sound), and the field of cataphonics is often called catacoustics.

Very often if there's a "cata-" something in science, there is an "ana-" counterpart (e.g. catabolic vs. anabolic, cathode vs. anode, etc.) but not in the case of cataphonics!