Thingummyjigs and Whatchamacallits Quiz

Answer: Aglet

Since the Roman era, aglets have been used; predominantly wealthy people would make their aglets from brass or silver. Not only used for shoelaces, aglets are used for cords and drawstrings too. The purpose of the sheath is to keep the fibres from unravelling and to make it easier to feed through eyelets. The origin of the word is from the Old French 'aguillette', which means needle.

Answer: Chinois

The word 'chinois' is a French adjective meaning 'Chinese'. Due to its very fine mesh, all sorts of foods that require a smooth texture can be strained through it, often using a pestle in conjunction with the sieve. The three wrong answers are all sieves, too. Zaru is a bamboo sieve used in Japanese cooking, a riddle is a soil sieve and tamis is known as a drum sieve, often used in Indian cooking.

Answer: Shake axe

A froe, or shake axe, is L-shaped and has a blade attached at a right angle to a haft. This tool is ordinarily used with a mallet and is very effective for splitting timber, making planks and kindling. The froe is seen as more accurate and effective than a regular axe, as the blade can be placed exactly where the craftsman needs it to be.

Answer: Live catch of fish or lobster

A corf, or corve is a type of livewell built by fisherman from wood, chicken wire or metal. These contraptions allow a steady flow of water through holes called well smacks. Traditionally they hold fish or crustaceans and can be built into the fishing boat, towed behind the boat or kept underwater. Prior to refrigeration and freezing, fisherman used to keep their catch in their corves in order to keep the catch alive until the fisherman could leave his fishing grounds to go to market.

Answer: Opera glasses

A lorgnette is a pair of spectacles which do not sit on the nose or hook over the ears like conventional spectacles, but rather are held to the face using a handle. While not originally designed as opera glasses, but rather as jewelry, that is what they are most commonly used for today. They were invented by George Adams, and were very popular in the 19th century.

Answer: Sugar coated chocolate candy

Yes, Smarties are delicious sugar-coated chocolate candies. First introduced in 1937 by the Rowntree Company, they are now manufactured by Nestlé. Rowntree originally marketed them as Chocolate Beans, but the name was thought to be misleading. "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell" was the next name before the company settled on Smarties. They are flat spheres and come in eight different colours. The South African advertising slogan for Smarties is "Wotalotigot".

In North America, Smarties is the name for a hard fruit-flavoured candy, manufactured by a company who holds the trademark name; Nestlé therefore does not sell their product in that market.

Answer: Capo

Capos are not only used on guitars, but on any stringed, usually fretted instrument like banjos and mandolins. The purpose of this device is to raise the pitch of the instrument by shortening the playable length of the strings. One of the earliest known descriptions of this contraption is from Italian musicologist Giovanni Battista Doni in his 1640 work "Annotazioni".

Modern day capos consist of a clamp covered in rubber which fits around the neck of the instrument, pressing down firmly on all strings.

Answer: Mushroom

A darning mushroom looks exactly like its name. It is ordinarily made of wood and is mushroom shaped. The sock is stretched over the top and the darning can begin. Other tools also used for darning are a darning egg, darning gourd (dried out gourd) or a conventional light bulb.

Answer: Copyright page

Details normally found in a colophon pertain to copyright, the publisher, date and place of publication. Traditionally this information was found at the back of the book, but in modern times has been moved to the front, and can ordinarily be found on the reverse of the flyleaf. The term colophon is derived from Late Latin and Greek meaning "summit" or "finishing touch".

Answer: Spider

Used in both snooker and pool, a spider is one of a number of different rests which can be used to reach the cue ball anywhere on the table. Different kinds of rests are cross, spider, swan, hook, half butt or full butt. An ordinary rest consists of a cue length, with a different head depending on the type.

Not only are they used for distance, but different rests can be used to create different shots. A spider rest, in particular, elevates the tip of the cue above the cue ball and can be used to create varying forms of spin on the ball.