"Spizzerinctum", A to Z Trivia Quiz

Answer: sandy

Our word "arena" comes from the same root as "arenose". Sand was found on every forerunner of today's arenas in ancient Rome (and of course, in Spain's bullrings!).

Answer: stuttering or stammering

Blesiloquence is stuttering or stammering. Porky made his fortune with his speech impediment. Melville's young sailor, however, as readers will recall, met his end partly through his stammer!

Answer: growing

"Crescive" and "increase" have the same root "to grow". The crescent moon got its name because its lighted area would soon grow larger with time. The popular croissant got its shape from the crescent moon on the Islamic flag; Viennese bakers showed their city's defiance and pride by making them in the shape of their enemy's symbol. (Croissants, of course, aren't in the habit of growing!)

Answer: skin

The root of "deric" is similar to that of "dermal".

Answer: investigating

"Expiscate" literally means "to fish out"; it's used as another word for investigate, as to "fish" for the truth.

Answer: fruitful

"FerOcious" means "wild eyed" and shares the same root as "feral". "FerAcious" comes from "ferax" for fruitful, abundant or fecund.

Answer: brains

We get "gormless" from English slang, "gorm" meaning brains or wit. Hope it didn't apply to YOU when you answered!

Answer: gaping

"Hiant" and "hiatus" are from the same root, for "gap".

Answer: confine him

Mews were once cages for hunters' falcons, then they were horses' stables, then apartments converted from stables. "Immew" gets its meaning from the falcon cages, to confine someone.

Answer: breakfast

"Jentacular" refers to breakfast.

Answer: by the worst

It comes from the Greek for "bad" and "rule", same as "democracy" means "rule of the people".

Answer: it's muddy

"Lutaceous" is the fancy way of saying a racetrack suffers from excessive precipitation!

Answer: musty

Despite the sound, "mucid" means musty, slimy or moldy!

Answer: shipwrecks

"Naufragous" comes from the Latin for "ship" and "break", but you knew that already, didn't you?

Answer: wall him up

Similar in meaning to "immew", "obvallate" shares the same root as "wall". People in Poe stories get obvallated all the time!

Answer: truncated

Actually, the two words do share the same origin: "remorse" means "bite again" and "premorse" means "bite before", that is, something already truncated.

Answer: small amount

It literally means "small quantity".

Answer: rod

"Rhabdoid" comes from an old word for rod-shaped.

Answer: substitute

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking til you do suck seed!" Old joke aside, a substitute does succeed the thing it replaces, so "succedaneum" shares the same root as "succeed".

Answer: comic

Thalia was the Greek muse of comedy, so we get "thalian" for comedian. Look up a book of Greek mythology for the other eight muses.

Answer: horrible

"Ugglesome" and "ugly" share the same root.

Answer: has poor health

Robert Louis Stevenson was a well-known valetudinarian.

Answer: angry

"Wraw" is from the same root as "wrath".

Answer: wood-cutting

"Xylotomous" is from the words for "wood" and "cut". "Tome" (book) and "atom" come from "tom-", "atom" being thought unsplittable. (yeah, right!)

Answer: wear it

A zuchetto is a skullcap worn by the Catholic priesthood. It gets the name (which means small gourd) from the Italian "zucca", for a pumpkin. It is not related to the vegetable marrow known as a zucchini, although both have names that are diminutives of the word for a pumpkin. Hope you learned these new words well!