Crystal Ball Stumpers 7 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Malahini

Won by satguru of the "classical music/mensan" team on 27 October, 2017, a malahini is an Hawaiian word that describes any new arrival to their beautiful country. It is also applied to any stranger in general. Hawaii was the 50th state to join the United States, and did so on August 21, 1959. That makes it then a long, long way from home, as, located in the middle of the northern Pacific, it's some 2,000 miles away from the rest of the nation.

Answer: Pyrolytic

Won by Varnish of the Palmetto Players team on 27 October, 2017, pyrolytic is the adjectival form of the word pyrolysis. Pyrolysis itself is the decomposition of any organic material in high temperatures. This takes place when oxygen is lacking. The word pyrolysis comes down to us from the Greek words pyro (meaning fire) and lysis (meaning separation). Pyrolysis is used quite heavily in industries that involve the use of carbon, to turn coal into coke, to turn plastic back into the oil from which they sprang (that's almost like ashes to ashes and dust to dust), and to produce fossil fuels and so forth.

Answer: Pachytene

No Fun Trivia member guessed this word from 14 November, 2017. This is not really surprising. I would have described it as relating to an elephant if anything, but pachytene is described as part of the early pregnancy stage during cell division, when chromatin begins to separate and form into two rod-shaped chromosomes, and on and on from there, until finally, one day you're looking at a squawking red-faced bundle of delight and thinking "Wow, let's get this little miracle baptised with the name of Pachytene". The etymology of this word cannot be located.

Answer: Pyrogenic

This was a somewhat easier word to guess than most because the prefix "pyro" (if you know your prefixes and suffixes) comes from the Greek word for fire, and the suffix "genic" means to originate in, or produce or generate, giving us a word relating to the production of fire or heat (or fever).

This word was guessed correctly by snapcracker from the FT team Retired and Loving It, on 14 November, 2017.

Answer: Bibliotheca

Won by FT player Varnish from the team Palmetto Players on 13 November, 2017, bibliotheca was a 9th century listing and review of 279-280 books read by the Byzantine Patriarch Photius (c.810-c.893). Photius began his collection as a type of quick reference of extracts or overall précis of these works which he had read over time. Today, the bibliotheca is looked upon as a pseudo-encyclopaedia by most people although Photius did not have this in mind when he created it. Most of the books he discusses were destroyed in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, but several copies of the bibliotheca survive still today, to the delight of historians everywhere.

Answer: Aztreonam

Aztreonam is defined in wikipedia as "a monobactam antiobiotic" used to "treat infections caused by gram-negative bacteria". Unless you have a medical background, that probably went straight over your head as fast as it did over mine. So let's look up gram-negative bacteria, shall we? Gram-negative bacteria are defined in the same source as being "characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall sandwiched between an inner cytoplasmic cell membrane and a bacterial outer membrane". Errr, well anyway, moving right along, this word was won by FT player Eraucci from The Moops team on 15 November, 2017.

Its etymology is unknown.

Answer: Entomophobia

Won by dcandler of the League of Nations team on 15 November, 2017, once again, this is a word that is a delight to work out if you know prefixes and suffixes. "Entomo" is a Greek prefix relating to insects, as in the word "entomology" which is the study of same. Entomology is actually more than the study of just insects though, and also includes earth worms, spiders, snails and slugs etc, but, rightly or wrongly, the wider and more familiar use of the term is associated with insects. "Phobia" is a Greek suffix meaning a morbid or unrealistic fear of some event, thing, person, place taking place. Together these two separate words give us "entomophobia", which is an unrealistic fear of insects - generally speaking.

There is a difference between a healthy wariness of insects, or an overwhelming attack of pure panic and terror on seeing one. Ugh, I hate those big Huntsman spiders that are found here in Australia.

They're bigger than a man's palm, fingers included - and they JUMP on you if you try to spray them.

Answer: Cerivastatin

Honestly, where on earth does Fun Trivia find these words? It's like speaking another language. Cerivastatin, which is now no longer on the market, was a drug widely used to prevent heart disease and lower cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, it certainly lowered those levels most definitely, as its consumption was related to the death of fifty-two individuals.

It caused their skeletal muscles to break down quickly and resulted in renal failure. That condition is known as rhabdomyolysis. Cerivastatin was hastily removed from the market in 2001 once this correlation was revealed. Once again, dcandler of the League of Nations team won this word on 15 November, 2017.

The etymology is unknown.

Answer: Marline

A marline is a nautical term to describe a rope made from two strands of material only. This is used to secure larger ropes to their sites. The word derives from two sources, both with the same meaning - the Middle Low German word "marling", and the late Middle English word "line". Marline was guessed by baldricksmum of The Joli Llamas team on 15 November 2017.

Answer: Poulterer

This word was won by Upstart3 of The Internationals team on 15 November, 2017. A poulterer is a British term from the late 16th century. It described a merchant who dealt in poultry and other game for larger medieval households such as manors and other wealthy establishments. His products were provided for a specific office called a poultry in those medieval households. The poultry itself was header by a person called a poulter.

Large kitchens during this period of history had various departments within their jurisdiction, all of which answered to the kitchen head. These included (1) the poultry; (2) the spicery (used for preparing and storing spices and headed by a spicerer); (3) the scullery (used for washing dishes, storing plates, heating water for bathing, and, interestingly, doing the laundry and ironing as well - always located next to the nearest water supply); (4) the saucery (used for preparation and storage of sauces and headed by a saucerer); and (5) the larder (used to store fish, jams and meat and headed by a larderer - who was called a spencer in Scotland).