Language Tricks And Parlour Games Online Trivia | Humanities

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What is the correct term to describe the special effect that occurs in lines like these: 'Able was I ere I saw Elba' and 'Sex at noon taxes'?

Answer: palindrome

An example of an anagram is 'enraged' for angered; 'to love ruin' for revolution; 'voices rant on' for conversation.

Spoonerisms are what the Rev. William Archibald Spooner was famous for. He was Warden of New College in Oxford from 1903 to 1924. He reproached one of his students that the student had 'hissed his mystery lessons', wanted to be 'sewn to another sheet' and called a Welsh harp a 'harsh whelp'. Spoonerists might ask people to 'form up a fill' and 'well-oiled bicycles' became 'well-boiled icicles'. In other words he permanently mixed up sounds and syllables.

The word laser is an acronym, a word formed from the first letters of the words to which it refers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

2. What is the correct term that describes all of these linguistic jokes? A. PRESBYTERIANS are BEST IN PRAYER B. ASTRONOMERS are MOONSTARERS C. TOTAL ABSTAINERS: they SIT NOT IN ALEBARS

Answer: Anagram

The best known pangram is probably: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It is not a perfect pangram though, because in a pangram ALL letters of the alphabet should be used, but each of them only ONCE. E,O, U and H, R and T are used more than once in this example.

A pentagram is a five-pointed star as used by sorcerers, alchemists and also Dr. Faustus in Goethe's play.

A conundrum is simply another term for a type of riddle with a pun in its answer. Example: When is coffee like soil? Answer: When it is 'ground'.

Anagrams: try these ones: 'We all make his praise' refers to a famous playwright and 'I paint modern' to a famous modern painter. Solutions written as retrograms: eraepsekahS mailliW; nairdnoM teiP.

3. What is the name for a line (or longer piece of writing) in which a particular letter is systematically avoided? Example: A jovial swain should not complain / Of any buxom fair / Who mocks his pain but thinks it gain / To quiz his awkward air.

Answer: Lipogram

In this lipogram there occurs no e. The opposite of lipograms are lines that instead of excluding a letter monopolise one. Such as: Persevere, ye perfect men, Ever keep the precepts ten. Or: Bold Ostrogoths of ghosts no horror show.

A clerihew is somewhat similar to the limerick. It's a four-line, blunt, irregular stanza. The clerihew always begins with a proper name. Example: Dr. W.G. Grace / Had hair all over his face. / Lord! how the people cheered / When a ball got lost in his beard. Another example: Sir Humphry Davy / Abominated gravy. / He lived in the odium / Of having discovered sodium.

4. What is the name of a text in which all the letters corresponding to Roman numerals (c, d, i, l, m, v and x), when added together, produce a sum equivalent to a specific year of the Christian calendar?

Answer: chronogram

A good example of a chronogram is: LorD haVe MerCIe Vpon Vs, which should yield the year of the Great Fire in London.

An anachronism means that you make a mistake when placing something into a particular historic period. A good example might be seen in a play on the Romans if somebody were to wear a wristwatch or specs.

A good example of an acrostic is: 'TV is what I watch every night. / I really like soccer. / Music is what I listen to. / Monkeys are my favourite animal. / Yoyos my favourite toy.' By reading the first letters of every line, an acrostic yields a message, usually a name. Here: Timmy.

5. As what can all of these lines be read? a. Just a white shark b. Space, time and relativity with a ridiculous script c. Endless vivacity in the Argentine

Answer: acrostics

Jaws, Starwars and Evita are the words formed from the first letters of the words in each line.

An alphabet game could be this advertisement: Wanted - A lady to superintend the household and preside at table. She should be: Agreeable, Becoming, Careful, Desirable, English, Facetious, Generous, Honest, Industrious, Judicious, Keen, Lively, Merry, Natty, Obedient, Philosophic, Quiet, Regular, Sociable, Tasteful, Useful, Vivacious, Womanish, (not) Xantippish, Youthful and Zealous.

A monogram means that you combine two or more letters in one design. Example: bedsheets or towels with initials.

6. Poetry always has tended to set itself special targets. One of them was the Echo Verse, in which at the end of every line the last two or three syllables are repeated, but in such a way that a new meaning, a new word is suggested. How should the last three syllables be re-written of these lines to obtain a suitable 'Echo'? If neither being grave nor funny / Will win the maid to matrimony ... ECHO: (1)Try ______

Answer: money

Another example of an echo verse: What shall I do to my Nymph / when I go to behold her? ECHO: Hold her.

7. The lines of an EQUIVOCAL POEM can be read in more than one order. In what order would a misogynist be most likely to read these? (Halfway through the poem there must be a semi-colon to suggest a rest.) 1.Adam could find no solid peace 2.Until he saw a woman's face 3.When Eve was given for a mate 4.Adam was in a happy state

Answer: 1,3;2,4.

Adam could find no solid peace,
When Eve was given for a mate;
Until he saw a woman's face,
Adam was in a happy state.

8. A rhopalic line is a line in which every new word is exactly one letter longer than the previous one. What would be a suitable last word for this rhopalic line? I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing __________.

Answer: handwriting

Other strange lines are tongue twisters: Which switch Miss is the right switch for Ipswich? Or: The sixth sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. Such tongue twisters can even become nursery rhymes: One is an old ox opening oysters / Two are toads totally tired trying to trot to Tewkesbury / Three are tame tigers taking tea / Four are fit friars fishing for frogs / Five are fairies finding fireflies, etc.

9. The term cryptogram is nowadays mostly understood as meaning 'something written in code'. Yet, anything that contains a cryptic or hidden message could on principle be called a cryptogram. To what is there a hidden reference in each of these somewhat cryptic lines? a.The lamb is one of my pets. b.I must give it up, I grieve to say. c. He made errors on purpose. d. He came looking for trouble.

Answer: animals

Bison, pig, deer and camel. A hidden city can be found in: Come near, o men of wisdom.

10. What secret message is revealed when you simply re-arrange the way these words are mutually separated? Toti Emu Lesto

Answer: to tie mules to

Maybe not a phrase with widespread applicability.

Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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Language Tricks And Parlour Games Quiz

This quiz deals with terminology in the field of what could be called word games, but is also partially in the periphery of literary techniques and linguistic effects. Come in and see for yourself.

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