Meta-Linguistics: Words About Words Quiz

Answer: the most appropriate term

French for 'the right word.'

Answer: a dispute over words

From the Greek 'logos' (word) and 'machia' (battle). The term is frequently used to characterize a dispute that has shifted from a more essential substantive matter to a conflict over semantics.

Answer: ersatz scholarly language creating a false impression of proper derivation from Latin or Greek

Latin for 'barbarous speech.' The Ancient Greek word for barbarian meant 'a foreigner whose native language is not Greek,' from the 'bar-bar-bar' ('bla-bla-bla') that Greeks heard when listening to a foreign tongue. The modern Greek word no longer has that connotation, as I once discovered when, in the course of struggling to communicate with a Kifissia shopkeeper, I explained my lack of comprehension by telling him I was a varvaros, a barbarian. Essentially, I was telling him that I thought I was Conan. I was lucky he didn't have me arrested in the interests of the public safety.

Answer: have more than one distinct meaning

From Greek 'poly' (many) and 'sema' (sign).

Answer: kenning

From Old Norse 'kenna' (to perceive or to know). Examples abound in Old Norse and Old English verse: 'whale-road' for ocean is an example of a very standard kenning. Poets in the Nordic and Celtic traditions got to the point where they would pride themselves on the obscurity of their kennings. There is one Icelandic saga in which a king tells a poet, without any obvious irony, that a poem must be very good because he couldn't understand a word of it.

Answer: a remark made in passing, to which significance ought not be attached

Latin for 'saying by the way.' In legal discourse, 'obiter dictum' or just 'dictum' (plural 'dicta') refers to a statement authored by a judge in the course of delivering a formal legal opinion which makes a point incidental to the legal argument comprising the 'holding' of the opinion; the holding has the effect of legal precedent, whereas dicta do not.

Answer: the obsessive repetition of meaningless words or phrases

From Latin 'verbum' (word) and 'gerere' (to carry on). Usually used in the context of mental illness.

Answer: language subject to more than one correct interpretation

An alternate form is amphiboly; derived from the Greek 'amphibolos' (ambiguity), ultimately from Greek 'amphi' (dual) and 'bolos' (throw), apparently understood as 'struck from two different directions.' An example: 'Thank you so much for the manuscript; I shall lose no time in reading it' (aspiring author thinks the speaker will read the book immediately without delay; chuckling amphibolist knows that he has committed to not reading the book at all).

Another example can be found in the road sign 'SLOW CHILDREN' (the sign-maker intends you to slow down because of the presence of children, but there is an invitation to interpret the sign as advertising the presence of mildly retarded kids).

Answer: square

From Greek 'hypo' (under) and 'onyma' (name), 'hyponym' refers to a term denoting a subcategory of a more general class. Hyponyms of 'quadrilateral' include 'square,' 'rectangle,' 'trapezoid' and 'parallelogram.'

Answer: echolalia

From 'Echo' (a nymph condemned by Hera to repeat the words spoken to her) and Greek 'lalein' (to speak). Other, similar terms are 'glossolalia' (speaking in tongues) and 'coprolalia' (the compulsion to use scatological terms).

Answer: the pointless repetition of words in speaking or writing

From Greek 'battologia' and ultimately from Greek 'battos' (stammerer) and 'logos' (word), hence 'word-stammering.'

Answer: I am unlikely to remember your name.

Derived from 'Lethe,' the river of forgetfulness (one of the five rivers of Hades) in Greek mythology, and Greek 'onyma' (name), 'lethonomia' refers to the tendency to forget names.

Answer: an incorrect choice of diction

From Greek 'akyros' (without authority or invalid (from 'a-' (negation) and 'kyros' (power)) and 'logos' (word)). This word is largely obsolete, but has such an interesting etymology I could not resist including it here.

Answer: The quiz author is showing off his big vocabulary.

Lexiphanicism is showing off by the use of inflated or pompous words. The term is derived from Greek roots meaning 'word-mongering' but, I think, was coined in the 18th century by Archibald Campbell, as a way of mocking Samuel Johnson.

Answer: symploce

EPISTROPHE: the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences ('government of the people, by the people, for the people(, shall not perish from the earth)'); from Greek 'epi-' (after), 'strophe' (turning).
ANAPHORA: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences ('We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills'); from Greek 'ana-' (back) and 'pherein' (carry).
SYMPLOCE: beginning a series of clauses or sentences with the same word or phrase while simultaneously ending each element in the series with a repeated word or phrase ('Against yourself you are calling him, against the laws you are calling him, against the democratic constitution you are calling him'); from Greek 'syn-' (together) and 'plekein' (to twine).