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A pop quiz for logophiles...

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March 06, 2017, 20:21
Kalleh
A pop quiz for logophiles...
I found this quiz online; see how you do:

How well do you know the intricacies, subtleties, and oddities of the English language? You have three minutes to find out--starting now.

1. What is the only letter in the alphabet with a name longer than one syllable?
2. What do the nouns scissors, underpants, and grits have in common?
3. Etymologically, what do the words electrocute, infotainment, textpectation, and smog have in common?
4. What is the antonym of euphemism?
5. What do these two sentences have in common: "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" and "Sixty zippers were quickly picked from the woven jute bag"?
6.Orthographically, what do the words radar, racecar, and tattarrattat have in common?
7. Semantically, what do the words weather, fix, sanction, and clip have in common?
8. Etymologically, what do the words aspirin, escalator, trampoline, and zipper have in common?
9. Orthographically, what do these two 15-letter words have in common: uncopyrightable and dermatoglyphics?
10. Poecilonym is a synonym for what common linguistic term?
March 06, 2017, 20:53
BobHale
Nine out of ten in about half a minute (couldn't remember the antonym of euphemism.)


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
March 08, 2017, 19:52
bethree5
I think I got a C. Will you publish the answers?
March 08, 2017, 20:27
tinman
I got 5: 1-4 and 6.
March 14, 2017, 21:24
Kalleh
The answers are here in white print, just in case you haven't taken the quiz yet:

The letter w. (As Douglas Adams observed, the abbreviated form of World Wide Web--WWW--"takes three times longer to say than what it's short for.")
All three are examples of pluralia tantum--nouns that appear only in the plural form.
All four are blends or portmanteau words--word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words.
dysphemism
Both sentences are pangrams: they use every letter of the alphabet.
Each is a palindrome, reading the same backwards and forwards.
All four are Janus words--words having opposite or contradictory meanings.
All four nouns were originally trademarks; now they're regarded as generic names.
Each of these 15-letter words contains no letter more than once.
synonym

March 21, 2017, 16:15
bethree5
Whew, I stunk at this! Thought I had a C, had an F!
March 22, 2017, 20:04
Kalleh
Ah, well. I didn't do that well either. Kudos to Bob, though!