Buy a Vowel: E As in Eye Trivia Quiz

Answer: Enzyme

The other three answers provided are not found in the dictionary. Without getting too biochemically detailed, as we are in humanities, not science, enzymes work just like other catalysts: by speeding up the rate of a chemical reaction and not getting used up in the process. Your body produces thousands of them. Lactose is the enzyme responsible for breaking down the milk sugar lactose found in milk.
The word enzyme would also produce a very respectable "Scrabble" score of 20. A little biochemistry knowledge can be handy in word games.

Answer: Eyrie

Tricky, but of the options listed eyrie is the only correct one. This word is a crossword compiler's dream and a crossword completer's nightmare as there are so many acceptable spelling variations. These include aerie, aery and eyry. Although the aerie variant is usually preferred in the US and eyrie is the preferred British English spelling, all variants are used in each country, especially by those cunning crossword compilers. Isn't that eerie? The word is used to refer specifically to the nest of an eagle, but can be used for any bird's nest that is built up high.

In the 16th and 17th century the word was also used to describe a young bird of prey.

Answer: Eyesore

It is the wonderfully descriptive eyesore. The word dates all the way back to Middle English (12th to 14th century), but at that time was used to describe .... a sore eye. Simpler times. Somewhere in the mid 16th century people started to use it to describe something that hurt their eyes in a different way, by being unpleasant to look at. I made up eyeache and eyebite but rather like the sound of them. Eyesome is another 16th century word, mainly used by poets, to describe something attractive.

In other words, the opposite of an eyesore.

Answer: Mid 19th century

Of course, the English language loves to add new words based on old ones. Some develop almost immediately and others take a while. In this case it took around 250 years for the term employee, a noun meaning a person employed or paid for work, to find its way into everyday language. Use (or employment) of the word employ, in its more general meaning of use for a particular purpose dates from the 14th century.

Answer: Ectype

It doesn't sound like a word that's been around for 300 years to me, but it is indeed ectype. The other three are not dictionary words. Ectype derives from the Greek word 'ektupos' which meant worked in relief, like the heads on coins. In its earliest use it meant a wax impression.

After 100 years or so of meaning a wax impression, it came to mean any copy of an original. It is in essence the opposite of a prototype. You want the word ectype used in a sentence? OK. In case you are worried, all of the questions and answers in this quiz are originals, not ectypes.

Answer: Erythrite

Erythrite is the proper name but I do love the sound of cobalt bloom. It's a form of feldspar. Of course, most of our 'eryth' derivative words come from the Greek eruthros or erythros, which means red. The other options are erythros herrings. I hope you weren't left erythros faced by your answer. If so, don't despair, this word isn't commonly used any more.

Answer: Everylike

Sorry if you searched everywhere for that answer. Not everyone has encountered the word everylike. It sprang up in the 14th century, and meant always or continually but that use faded with time. From the mid 19th century it cropped up again meaning from time to time.

A little confusing for everyone who knew it in its previous form. Maybe that is why it is no longer used everyplace. The word everyplace originated in North America in the 20th century in North America and means .... everywhere. Well, I think that clears everything up.

Answer: Eustyle

The three incorrect answers are completely fictional again. The correct answer is, of course, eustyle. Two and a half times to three times the diameter of the columns! Those architects are pretty specific. I guess that's a good thing. There is even a word for the spacing between the columns if you want real specificity - it is intercolumniation.

There is a Greek word 'eustulos' which means 'with columns well placed' from which this word derives. Those Greeks knew their columns.

Answer: True

If you knew that systole is the phase of cardiac rhythm in which the blood is contracted by the ventricles and then forced out to the aorta and lungs, you probably had a reasonable chance of getting this correct. If not, you probably experienced extrasystole while you decided whether this was the definition or not. I personally experienced extrasystole when I checked this quiz over the first time and realized I had a major error in one of the questions and had to start it all over again. True story. My mean "Scrabble" playing mind desperately wants to have someone place systole on the board when I have the letters for extra in my rack but that has not so far happened.

Answer: Etymologize

It can also be spelled etymologise, but it seemed a lot easier to use one form for each option. The other three choices are again figments of my fevered imagination. Etymologize (or etymologise) means to study etymology, which is the development of a word through time.

It can also mean to provide an etymology for a word. My secondary reference source for this quiz was the "Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition". It has a lot of information on etymologies of individual words, including examples of their use in specific texts such as Shakespeare's plays. If you have an interest in etymology and some time on your hands, I recommend you spend some time with one of the volumes.