Words Too Easily Confused, Set Ten Quiz

Answer: effable

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name."
~T.S. Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

The adjective effable means utterable or expressible. It entered English from an Old French word (itself derived from Latin) meaning "to speak out."

Answer: efface

"I would efface the word atoms from science, persuaded that it goes further than
experience... In chemistry we should never go further than experience. Could there
be any hope of ever identifying the minuscule entities?" ~Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas

Meaning "to wipe out, to expunge, to obliterate, to expunge," efface comes from the French verb "effacer" which means, literally, "to obliterate the face of something or someone." It came to the Old French rather directly from the Latin meaning "to wipe out the face."

Answer: ephedrine

"There's an entire generation of male strength and endurance athletes, even recreational lifters, who have never gotten off the ephedrine-caffeine-aspirin stack. The process of getting off stimulants is really horrible." ~Timothy Ferriss.

Ephedrine is an odorless white crystalline alkaloid originally obtained from shrubs in the genus ephedra which grow in America and Eurasia. The medicine was named in 1887 by the organic chemist Nagai Nagayoshi (1844-1929) after the plant. Ephedrine is modernly synthesized.

Answer: effendi

Nasrudin: "I can see in the dark."
Servant: "That may be so, Effendi, but if it is true, why do you sometimes carry a
candle at night?"
Nasrudin: "To prevent other people from bumping into me."
~Sufi legend.

From the Medieval Greek, meaning "lord" or "master", "effendi" is a term used in Ottoman Turkish, as a title of respect somewhat equivalent to the English "sir."

Answer: effrontery

"The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted,
evidently an effrontery." ~Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).

From the Latin meaning "shameless," effrontery entered English via the Old French, where it also meant without shame. The modern sense is of being overly bold, surpassing the reasonable bounds of modesty and decency.

Answer: effete

"A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals." ~Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (1918-1996); denouncing Moratorium Day protest against Vietnam War; in NY "Times" 20 Oct 69.

The adjective effete is used in Modern English but never in a nice way. It derives from the Latin meaning "exhausted, worn out, unproductive." Since the late 18th Century, it has been used to denote one who is snobby, without character, and/or decadent.

Answer: effigy

"Perhaps you think I had forgotten Mr. Rochester, reader, amidst these changes of place and fortune. Not for a moment. His idea was still with me, because it was not a vapour sunshine could disperse, nor a sand-traced effigy storms could wash away; it was a name graven on a tablet, fated to last as long as the marble it inscribed." ~Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), "Jane Eyre" Chap. 34.

Effigy is a noun used for an image, a representation, especially a sculpture of someone. It comes to English from a French word related to the form or shape of something, the same word from which we derive the noun "figure." French borrowed the word from the Latin verb meaning to mold or fashion an image or likeness of someone or something. The notion of hanging someone in effigy shows up much later (e.g. 1670).

Answer: efficacious

"Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know." ~Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English author.

The English adjective "efficacious", which is often used in connection with medical treatment, is derived from a Latin stem meaning powerful in the sense of being able to accomplish something.

Answer: effervesce

"It will effervesce; stir it while foaming into the mixture, which should be a thick batter." ~Eliza Leslie (1787-1858), Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book (1850).

Effervesce has a physical sense (to fizz, sparkle or give off bubbles) and a metaphoric sense (to demonstrate great enthusiasm in speech). The word entered English from Latin in the late 17th Century from "effervescere" -- a term related to a liquid beginning to boil.

Answer: effluent

"Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society." ~Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978).

Effluent is not necessarily a negative term; it may refer, for example, to a creek which runs out of a lake. Any outflow is technically an effluence. The English noun derives directly from the Latin meaning that which flows out; the word did not acquire the negative meaning of "liquid industrial waste" until the 1930s.