Interesting Words for the Discriminating Pedant Quiz

Answer: Belief that the universe is god.

From Greek roots meaning 'wood' or 'matter' and 'god.' (I got a little tricky with the 'nature spirits' wrong answer, but figured anyone recognizing the roots (without being familiar with the word) would parse it as 'belief that trees are god' and thus successfully reject that nearly-but-not-quite-right response.)

Answer: Divination using entrails.

From Latin roots meaning 'entrails' (or 'nobler or higher internal organs') and 'see.' (Capsaicin? Extra spicy???? Oh, I hope no one picked that one.)

Answer: Having control over fire.

From Latin roots meaning 'fire' and 'power.' (The trickiest wrong answer here is the 'lack of knowledge' one, but 'ignorant' comes from 'gnosis' (knowledge) with a negative prefix, and thus that answer *had* to be wrong because the word would have to have begun 'igno-' rather than 'igni-' to have carried that meaning.)

Answer: Government by mothers.

From Greek roots meaning 'mother' and 'power.' (All the wrong answers here are somewhat tricky. 'Metro-' will make the etymologically unsavvy think of 'metropolis' or 'metropolitan' (and its misleading short form 'metro'), when of course it is the root 'polis' that means city: 'metropolis' is the 'mother city.' 'Metro-' is also somewhat similar to both 'merit' (worth) and the Greek root 'merere' (to earn).)

Answer: Sexual obsession with crossed legs.

From Greek roots meaning 'the letter x (xi in Greek)' 'limb' and 'lust.' (None of the wrong answers are tricky, unless of course one were to confuse 'lagnia' (lust) with 'algia' or 'algos' (pain).)

Answer: A person obsessed with illness.

From a Latin root meaning 'strength' or 'health.'

Answer: An absurd prediction.

From Greek roots meaning 'fool' and 'seer.'

Answer: Talking too much.

From Latin roots meaning 'many' and 'speech.' (This one is *extremely* tricky, since any of the wrong answers *could* have been right, etymologically speaking. The only way to get this one (besides familiarity with the word), is to know that it is a 'polyglot' who speaks several languages, that it is a 'polymath' who is conversant with several disciplines, and that it is 'equivocal' which actually followed the implied etymology to end up meaning something like wishy-washy.)

Answer: Facilitating escape from thought.

An etymological chimera: from a Greek root meaning 'thought' and a Latin root meaning 'flee.'

Answer: Divination using thunder.

From Greek roots meaning 'thunder' and 'to see.' (One of the wrong answers plays off a vague similarity of the Greek work for thunder to the name 'Kerberos,' the three headed dog that guarded the gate to Hades. One plays off a similarity to the Celtic myth of Cernunnos, the horned god or wild huntsman.)