Don't Jargogle Your Mind - II Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zenzizenzizenzic

The word was coined by mathematics textbook writer Robert Recorde in the 16th century. He writes in his book "The Whetstone of Witte", published in 1557 that it "doeth represent the square of squares squaredly". Therefore, the zenzizenzizenzic of the number two, is 256. In modern times we would just have written it as two to the eight power, with the eight in superscript above the two.

Answer: Welkin

This term has been used to describe the heavens since the 12th century, and was taken from the Old English 'wolcen', related to Old High German 'wolcan'. 'Wolcen' was used in the epic poem "Beowulf" in the 8th century. The author writes "weox under wolcnum" which means "grew under heaven". Wolcnum being the plural form of wolcan. Charles Wesley writes in his 1739 book, "Hymns and Sacred Poems", "Hark! how all the welkin rings, / Glory to the King of kings".

This was later adapted to "Hark! the herald-angels sing / Glory to the new born king", the well known Christmas carol.

Answer: Sweven

Sweven is a word that just rolls off the tongue. It was taken from the Old English 'swefn', and related to the Old Norse word 'svefn' which means 'dream, sleep'. It can be found in numerous places throughout literature. In Richard Burton Francis' 1885 translation of the "The Arabian Nights" we find the following, "[The queen] went in to the Sultan and assured him that their daughter had suffered during all her wedding-night from swevens and nightmare." Geoffrey Chaucer also uses the word in "The Book of the Duchess" which was thought to have been written in between 1368 and 1372, "Thought I, "This is so queint a sweven/ That I wol, by process of time,/ Fonde to put this sweven in ryme...".

Answer: Apricity

This term is taken from the Latin word 'aprīcitās', meaning 'the quality of, sunniness, or sunshine'. It was first recorded by Henry Cockeram in "The English Dictionary; or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words" authored in 1623. Found in "Letters to Squire Pedant", written by Samuel Klinefelter Hoshourin in 1856, "These humicubrations, the nocturnal irorations, and the dankishness of the atmosphere, generated by a want of apricity, were extremely febrifacient."

Answer: Gallimaufry

This term is taken from the Old French 'galimafrée', meaning 'sauce, ragout'. John Camden Hotten originally compiled a dictionary of slang in 1859 called " A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Word" republished in 1865 as "The Slang Dictionary".

The definition of the word is given as "Gallimaufry, A kind of stew, made up of scraps of various kinds. Sea term, and probably meaning the galley scraps". In the "Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450-2000" published by the Oxford University Press, gallimaufry is described as "The term 'gallimaufry', which in the sixteenth century was a dish comprising a hodge-podge of miscellaneous scraps of food, generally denotes a heterogeneous, random, unsystematic collection of material of any kind, lacking any common or unifying character or theme.

The term is sometimes encountered in booksellers' and auction catalogues applied to miscellaneous,unorganized collections of albums, letters, and other documents."

Answer: Quotha

Quotha is really a combination if two words in Middle English, one being 'quoth' meaning 'to say, speak to, address, exhort, admonish'; the other is 'a' meaning 'he'. One of the more well known poems using the word is "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1845:

"Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

Found in the novel "Old Mortality" written by Sir Walter Scott published in 1816, "Prospered, quotha!" said the mercer, "why you remember Cumnor-Place, the old mansion-house beside the church-yard?"

Answer: Wanion

It is taken from the Middle English 'waniand' meaning 'waning'.

David Crystal writes in his 2014 book, "Words in Time and Place: Exploring Language Through the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary":

"This unusual word comes from wane, said of the moon. The idea behind it is that the time of the waning moon is unlucky, so that to curse someone in this way was to ask for bad luck to come to them. If you wanted to send really bad luck, you would intensify it as (c.1430) in the wild waniand or (c.1485) in the wild waning world. The expression isn't recorded after the sixteenth century, but with wanion replacing waniand it survives into the 1800s. In Walter Scott's 'Peveril of the Peak' (1823, ch.5), Sir Geoffrey Peveril curses a parson with one of his favourite phrases: 'with a wannion to him'."

Answer: Puissant

Taken from Old French 'poissant' meaning 'powerful', "Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary" defines poissant as follows:

"Puissant Powerful; strong; mighty; forcible; as, a puissant prince or empire.
"Puissant deeds."
"Of puissant nations which the world possessed."
"And worldlings in it are less merciful,
And more puissant ."

Answer: Maugre

Maugre is taken from Old French 'mau' meaning bad and 'gre' meaning 'liking, pleasure'. The word has been in use since the 14th century and alternatives forms are 'magre' and 'maulgre'. In the "Encyclopaedia Parthensis or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature Intended to Supersede the Use of Other Books of Reference" " published in 1816 in Edinburgh, the entry for 'maugre' is as follows:

"MAUGRE.adj [malgre, French.] In spite of; notwithstanding. It is now out of use.--

This, maugre all the world, will I keep safe. [Shak.]

Maugre thy strength, place, youth and eminence;
Thy valour, and thy heart; thou art a traitor. [Shak.]

I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead hell captive, maugre hell! and thow
The pow'rs of darkness bound. [Milton]

Maugre all which, 'twas to stand fast,
As long as a monarchy should last. [Hudibras.]

He prophesied of the success of his gospel;
which after his death, immediately took root, and read itself everywhere, maugre all opposition or persecution. [Burnet]

Answer: Clepe

The term is taken from the Old English 'cleopian'; related to Middle Low German 'kleperen' meaning 'to rattle'. The past participle of clepe is yclept which is still used today despite being an archaism, even though clepe itself is obsolete. It was used by Shakespeare in his play "Love's Labour's Lost" and a derivative of cleped/yclept is used by John Milton in his poem "L'Allegro" published in 1645:

"In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
But come thou goddess fair and free,
In heav'n yclep'd Euphrosyne,
And by men, heart-easing Mirth"