Sesquipedalius' B Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: ordinary, unrefined

The adjective "banausic" carries several denotations: ordinary, usual, unrefined, common, materialistic, uncultured. It derives from the Ancient Greek "banausos", meaning someone with a mechanical (as opposed to intellectual) occupation. This term derives from "banausikos" meaning manual labour, as contrasted to the (superior) life of the mind.

Answer: to be suitable, appropriate

The verb "behoove" means to be necessary, to be appropriate, to be suitable, to be befitting, to be in one's own best interest. An alternative British spelling is "behove". The Modern English term derives from the Old English "behofian", meaning to need, and the Old English "behoof" which means suitable or fit for a purpose. Compare the Proto-Germanic "bi-hof", the Frisian "bihof", the Dutch "behoef", and the Swedish "behöva".

Answer: kindness, gentleness

In medical terms, benignity means generally harmless and specifically non-cancerous. To be told that a tumor suspected of being malignant is, in fact, benign is a cause for relief. The original meaning of benignity is the quality of being gentle, kind, gracious, and of good will.

The Modern English noun "benignity" relates to the adjective "benign". Late Middle English borrowed "benignité" from the Old French, which borrowed it from the Latin "benignus" meaning kindly, generous, and friendly.

Answer: a second-hand bookstore

A bibliopole is a seller of old books, especially rare books. Bibiopolist is a synonym. The term(s) derive from the Latin "bibliopola" which derived from the Greek "bibliopoles" meaning a seller of books. Contrast the French "bouquiniste" which means a peddler of books of little monetary value.

The Anglican Bibliopole sold second-hand books on Anglican theology, liturgy, history, biography, devotion, and music. Sadly, their store closed in 2011.

Answer: light-hearted, happy, without care

The adjective "blithe" had been used in English for several hundred years before it was compounded with the suffix "-some" in the 6th century. If "blithe" meant gay, cheerful, eupeptic, and upbeat, so did blithesome. The same thing happened to gladsome, lightsome, winsome, and lonesome.

Answer: impressive, enormous, extraordinary

Officer Candidate Sid Worley falls in love with a local woman looking to move up in society by marrying a Navy pilot. When Worley washes out of the programme, his girlfriend breaks up with him and he commits suicide. His attitude toward women and sex is reflected in his language choice in this dialogue.

The term adjective "bodacious" entered Modern English from Southern American slang in about 1837. It may have been a fusion of "bold" and "audacious." In this case, it means remarkably large. There are other senses in which the term bodacious may be used.

Answer: an area of expertise, authority or interest

Erasmus was upset by conjunctive adverbs. A conjunctive adverb joins two independent clauses in a sentence. In the sentence "The vampires are out tonight; accordingly, I will take garlic, a crucifix and a wooden stake with me on my walk," the word "accordingly" is an adverb but it is used as a conjunction to connect the independent clauses.

Historically, a bailiwick is a geographic area over which a bailiff (a sort of sheriff's deputy) has jurisdiction. The British Channel Islands are geopolitically divided into bailiwicks.

The term expanded metaphorically to mean a person's sphere of operations, expertise, interest, or authority.

Answer: bovarism

An individual whose mundane life is unsatisfying may fantasize a life of greater adventure, danger, import, and prestige. That unrealistic self-conception is called bovarism, after Emma Bovary, the principal character in Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" (1857).

She imagined herself the heroine in a romance to displace the dreary reality of her life. Walter Mitty imagined himself a Navy pilot of a flying boat, an emergency-room surgeon, and a feared assassin. Psychologists use the term Fantasy-Prone Personality Disorder to describe bovarism.

When the fantasizer confuses the fantasy with reality or induces psychosomatic illness as a direct consequence of the imagination, treatment is required.

Answer: making something from available materials

Angus "Mac" MacGyver was played by Richard Dean Anderson in the first series and by Lucas Till in the second. The character was clever and resourceful, improvising things with his Swiss Army knife and a roll of duct tape. The Professor was played by Russell Johnson.

He invented a lie detector using bamboo, the ship's horn and the radio's batteries, a hot-air balloon of raincoats sealed together with tree sap, a washing machine using a bicycle, and a battery charger made of coconuts, pennies, seawater, and hairpins. Bricolage is a noun, adopted from French, meaning the making of something with whatever was available at the moment.

It carries the sense of improvising or tinkering. It is used in numerous contexts: fine art, architecture, computer science, business, anthropology, education, philosophy and critical theory.

Answer: hubbub, uproar, fuss

A brouhaha is an uproar, a stir, a commotion, a fuss, a hubbub. It compares to the German word "Katzenjammer", which means a cat's wail, and is used to describe a discordant noise made by a crowd. The noun entered English from the French in the 18th century.

Its etymology might be onomatopoeic or it might derive from a corruption of the Ancient Hebrew "barukh habba'" (blessed be the one who comes).