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Today I bought a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Words. Browsing through it I thought I'd set a new quiz. The rules are simple. All you have to do is guess the decade in which the word or phrase first appeared in print according to the OED archives. Many have earlier oral usage. No looking them up, no researching, just straight guessing based on your own existing knowledge. There are three from each decade in the 20th century. 1. antibiotic 2. astronaut 3. bulldozer 4. chain-store 5. credit card 6. crop circle 7. crossword puzzle 8. double glazing 9. downsize 10. economical with the truth 11. ethnic cleansing 12. false memory syndrome 13. family vlues 14. feel good factor 15. f*** off 16. hovercraft 17. human resources 18. karaoke 19. motorcade 20. nouvelle cuisine 21. organised crime 22. sado-masochism 23. sound bite 24. speed camera 25. superpower 26. tabloid journalism 27. theme park 28. war crime 29. Xerox 30. yellow pages Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | ||
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quote: I know I don't have exactly three for each decade but I don't seem to be able to find time to accomplish much unless I put it into the form of a double dactyl. I'm sure, though, that several modern-sounding terms are as old as the hills. If I get seven correct, I'll be delirious. | |||
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That's 5 for CJ then. This is much harder than you'd think. To be fair quite a lot of your other guesses are only out by one decade. Remember everyone, we're looking for first recorded written use of the term. Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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Oh!!! The first recorded written use!! In that case, up my score to 12. (or how about giving us half a point for being just one decade off, maybe?) | |||
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quote: Good idea. Total score under new scoring system 10.5 Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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OK, here goes: 1. antibiotic - 1940s 2. astronaut - 1920s 3. bulldozer - 1930s 4. chain-store - 1920s 5. credit card - 1960s 6. crop circle - 1980s 7. crossword puzzle - 1900s 8. double glazing - 1960s 9. downsize - 1990s 10. economical with the truth - 1910s 11. ethnic cleansing - 1980s 12. false memory syndrome - 1990s 13. family values - 1910s 14. feel good factor - 1960s 15. f*** off - 1900s 16. hovercraft - 1950s 17. human resources - 1980s 18. karaoke - 1980s 19. motorcade - 1920s 20. nouvelle cuisine - 1980s 21. organised crime - 1920s 22. sado-masochism - 1910s 23. sound bite - 1970s 24. speed camera - 1980s 25. superpower - 1900s 26. tabloid journalism - 1930s 27. theme park - 1940s 28. war crime - 1940s 29. Xerox - 1950s 30. yellow pages - 1930s I know I haven't got three from each decade as well, but I just put down the first answer that came to me. | |||
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That's a total score of 12 for arnie. Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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Excellent quiz, Bob. I have a serious lack of confidence, but here's my shot: 1. antibiotic - 20s 2. astronaut - 00s 3. bulldozer - 10s 4. chain-store - 30s 5. credit card - 60s 6. crop circle - 50s 7. crossword puzzle - 20s 8. double glazing - 50s 9. downsize - 70s 10. economical with the truth - 80s 11. ethnic cleansing - 20s 12. false memory syndrome - 70s 13. family values - 00s 14. feel good factor - 80s 15. f*** off - 40s 16. hovercraft - 50s 17. human resources - 20s 18. karaoke - 90s 19. motorcade - 10s 20. nouvelle cuisine - 90s 21. organised crime - 20s 22. sado-masochism - 00s 23. sound bite - 90s 24. speed camera - 50s 25. superpower - 50s 26. tabloid journalism - 30s 27. theme park - 30s 28. war crime - 40s 29. Xerox©  - 50s30. yellow pages - 20s The scoring system tempted me never to guess 90s or the 00s, and always substitute 80s and the 10s. So I've gone back and modified to put three guesses of 90s, and three of the 00s. | |||
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9.5 for shufitz but in the arbitrary spirit that I've picked up from CJ I've awarded an extra half point for not taking advantage of the loophole in the scoring system even though he spotted it - so 10 points. For future contestants this won't apply - instead I'll deduct a mark from anyone who has no 1900s or 1990s guesses. Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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1. antibiotic ~~ 1930 2. astronaut ~~ 1950 3. bulldozer ~~ 1930 4. chain-store ~~ 1960 5. credit card ~~ 1960 6. crop circle ~~ 1980 7. crossword puzzle ~~ 1920 8. double glazing ~~ 1970 9. downsize ~~ 1990 10. economical with the truth ~~ 1980 11. ethnic cleansing ~~ 1920 12. false memory syndrome ~~ 1980 13. family values ~~ 1960 14. feel good factor ~~ 1970 15. f*** off ~~ 1950 16. hovercraft ~~ 1960 17. human resources ~~ 1970 18. karaoke ~~ 1990 19. motorcade ~~ 1950 20. nouvelle cuisine ~~ 1980 21. organised crime ~~ 1900 22. sado-masochism ~~ 1910 23. sound bite ~~ 1980 24. speed camera ~~ 1900 25. superpower ~~ 1950 26. tabloid journalism ~~ 1930 27. theme park ~~ 1950 28. war crime ~~ 1940 29. Xerox ~~ 1950 30. yellow pages ~~ 1960 These are all WAGS.  | |||
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That's 10 for Morgan. Any more takers before I post the results ? Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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1. antibiotic - '10s 2. astronaut - '50s 3. bulldozer - '70s 4. chain-store - '50s 5. credit card - '60s 6. crop circle - '90s 7. crossword puzzle - '00s 8. double glazing - '70s 9. downsize - '90s 10. economical with the truth - '30s 11. ethnic cleansing - '40s 12. false memory syndrome - '20s 13. family values - '50s 14. feel good factor - '60s 15. f*** off - '00s 16. hovercraft - '70s 17. human resources - '80s 18. karaoke - '80s 19. motorcade - '20s 20. nouvelle cuisine - '80s 21. organised crime - '30s 22. sado-masochism - '00s 23. sound bite - '90s 24. speed camera- '30s 25. superpower - '40s 26. tabloid journalism - '60s 27. theme park - '10s 28. war crime - '40s 29. Xerox - '50s 30. yellow pages - '20s | |||
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I'm not even gonna try. I am chicken, hear me balk. | |||
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Sorry about the delay. 1900s yellow pages war crime tabloid journalism 1910s chain store crossword puzzle motorcade 1920s astronaut f*** off organised crime 1930s bulldozer economical with the truth sado-masochism 1940s antibiotic double glazing superpower 1950s credit card hovercraft Xerox 1960s family values human resources theme park 1970s downsize karaoke nouvelle cuisine 1980s crop circle feel good factor sound bite 1990s speed camera false memory syndrome ethnic cleansing If you feel strongly that you disagree with an answer the people to contact are Oxford University Press. If you think I miscounted your score then you are quite probably right. Anyone else got any good word quizes ? Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by BobHale: Anyone else got any good word quizes ?[QUOTE] I'm working on one I consider a goodie. I'll post it Friday. | |||
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Yee-hah! I win! I win!  | |||
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OK. Well, first off, this is an idea that turned out to be more interesting in my head than it was when I actually tried it on myself and a few people. Still, for what it's worth, here goes: On a lined piece of paper, draw 5 vertical lines making 6 columns. All the way to the left on the first 19 lines, write the letters from A to Z with the exceptions of I, J, Q, U, V, X, and Z (otherwise known as "the tough bunch"). What you have is the beginning of a sort of vocabulary test. The goal is to fill as many boxes as possible with words that begin and end with each of the letters listed at the left, just one to a box. Words in the 1st column will be just one syllable long, in the second box two syllables and so on. If you end up with 7- and 8-syllable words or others for which you don't have a column, more power to you. Just cram them in. Rules: 1.) Unlike other word games of this sort, proper names, hyphenated words, and slang terms are permitted. At times they may be the only answers you'll be able to come up with. No abbreviations, though. 2.) Only one word per letter, per column. If you can think of 15 different 5-syllable words begining and ending with the letter K, you're just showing off. Only one of them counts. 3.) Scoring is easy, one point per syllable for each word BUT (and this is important) you get ZERO POINTS for, say, a five-syllable word if you do not have one-, two-, three-, and four-syllable words for that same letter. Break the thread and only words to the left of the open space earn points. For example, when I tried this the first time, I had "seats," "sections," "settlements," and "superconductors" on my S line for a total score there of just 6 points. I didn't get the 5 points for "superconductors" since I couldn't think of a four-syllable word beginning and ending with the letter S in the time allowed. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Pretty lame.) An exception here is for any word beginning and ending with either I, J, Q, U, V, X, or Z in which the one-point-per-syllable rule applies regardless of whether or not you're able to build a string of words. 4.) Time limit: I started out with just 15 minutes and then was more than a bit disgruntled when my total score was just 56 so I tacked on another 15 minutes and upped my score to 103. Either time limit you feel like using is fine. 4.) Obviously, the honor system applies. No dictionaries, no googling - grey matter only. Arguments are both likely and encouraged. I know that at least one of my words is going to catch a lot of heat but it's not like that's any big news, right? Just by way of comparison, the top entries for each letter on my sheet were A- 4 syllables, B-2, C-4, D-4, E,4, F-2, G-4, H-2, K-2, L-3, M-3, N-4, O-2, P-2, R-6, S-6, T-3, W-2, and Y-3 plus 8 more points from "the tough bunch" of letters. Additionally, there were 8 points that I ended up not being able to count plus another 20 or 30 points for words which have come to me long after time ran out. I tried this with two other people locally and while I had the top score, the difference between the high and the low score was next to nothing. Also, in all honesty, you could subtract an additional 6 points from my 15 minute score and 10 points from my 30 minute score since the whole idea of this exercise came to me when I noticed an unusual property of one particular word that I doubt would have come to me if this test was given to me out of the blue as it is to you. Time is the big killer. I'd like to think that I have a pretty fair vocabulary but sometimes the words just don't come. Try it if you like and maybe we can post scores as you get them and your longest threads, say, next Wednesday. | |||
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I managed 114 in 30 minutes. I got it up to about 130 with the ones that occurred to me in the next half an hour but they don't count. Unsurprisingly my longest thread was S Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. | |||
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I did my 15 minutes, stopped to tote up the score, and then did the last 15 minutes. While toting, of course, I found my goofs and eliminated them. Is that cheating? Anyhow, the 15- and 30-minute scores were 137 and 195. My progress was much improved when I thought of one trick in the first period, and another in the second. CJ oh rulemeister, should I put the tricks here or leave them for others to discover? | |||
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I got 138 in 15 minutes and 196 in 30 minutes. | |||
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Ah, um, well, hmmm....I thought by adding a point to each of Shoo's scores that I made it clear that I was fudging my score. Not the case; I hear that someone believed me. Let me make myself perfectly (and sadly) clear: There is not one word game in the whole universe where I would get a better score than Shoo. No, it just doesn't exist. Story of my pitiful life! However, I do know a scrumptious 7-syllable word that begins and ends with "s" because of Shoo, so all is not lost! | |||
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OK, I'm mildly impressed. HOWEVER! I came up with a four-syllable beauty from the "I, J, ... X, Z" group that I am rather proud of. My daughter argued against it but that, in part, is the fun of little bits of nonsense as this. Also, I found myself "improving" my words, substituting a "better" two-syllable word for the first one that occurred to me. Ate up valuable time, probably, but it lead to the construction of a brand new vocabulary based riddle, the world debut of which follows: Question - What is a two-syllable word beginning with a "B" and ending with a "B" which is defined as something that every man wants to get from a woman but then, when she does it for him, he may be reluctant to return the favor? Answer - a Backrub. (And even now I can only think of two two-syllable words [one slang] beginning and ending with a "B".) | |||
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You're right, CJ, the fun part is seeing all the words, technically correct or not. Would it be possible for us to post them here, or are there too many? | |||
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Possible, yes. Boring, possibly. I'm sure most people had little trouble with the shorter words in the time limits given. I'll post mine maybe next Monday. In the meantime I'll just assume that anyone not adding to this thread came up a tad short score-wise since, after all, there's no shortage of wordcrafters announcing they beat my score when this was the case. It's just a game, guys. Just a way of stretching the ol' gray matter in a new way... | |||
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CJ, I just meant posting some of the really fun words, like the 7 syllable word beginning and ending with "s" that Shoo identified. | |||
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Agreed. I'm curious to see if anyone else made any headway with any of the letters from the tough bunch (J, X, etc). Next Monday. | |||
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Okay... I did it. My brain hurts. My score is 167 for 30 minutes. I didn't count my "I" word of "illuminati" because it's not English and my kids were watching Tomb Raider in the background so it's kind of cheating since I heard that word in the film. | |||
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quote: I got illuminati but couldn't count it because I couldn't find a four syllable worf to precede it, did you ,manage a four syllable i--i word ? Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. | |||
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quote: The pattern-seach feature of one-look gives plenty of B_____B words. Many of them are of course hyper-obscure, but here are the "reasonable" ones: 2 syllables: backstab, bathtub, bedaub, benumb, bicarb, boobjob, bookclub, breadcrumb, brewpub 3 syllables: bafflegab, baobab and one 4-syllable beauty: beelzebub Broadening the standards somewhat, one could add bl**-job, black-bag job, battenberg, and B&B (for a Bed and Breakfast inn). | |||
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quote: No... I thought that for the "challenging" letters you didn't have to have the preceding syllable words. | |||
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Shufitz, you know me, I really hate to quibble , but "boobjob"???? And, "bicarb" is not really a word; it is just shortened from "bicarbonate". Hmmm. I think I must ask for a judge on your score! | |||
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Kalleh... you know the 2-syllable job they were really thinking of is blow. | |||
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quote: Read C J's first rule (posted Mar. 14) : "1.) Unlike other word games of this sort, proper names, hyphenated words, and slang terms are permitted. At times they may be the only answers you'll be able to come up with. No abbreviations, though." Bicarb is listed in M-W and dated to 1922. The OED (1989 edition) lists it as "Colloq. abbrev. of BICARBONATE (of soda)". I think it's been around long enough it can be considered a word, not just an abbreviation. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary calls it "informal". Boobjob can be found in Macquarie Dictionary Book of Slang, an interesting dictionary of Australian slang. I had never heard of the Macquarie Dictionary before, but it's worth investigating. So, according to rule 1, both words are acceptable. Tinman | |||
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I would have considered "boobjob" a no go since I see it as two words but that's just me. The killer term I came up with was "Qatar-Iraq" as in "Since the war began, commercial Qatar-Iraq flights have been suspended." My daughter pitched a fit over this one which, of course, just made it all the better. The word that started this all was "chic" when I noticed that it began and ended with a "C" and had only one syllable. I couldn't think of any other words that fit that description and the game grew from there. | |||
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I've just come back from a roughly half hour search through OneLook for words beginning and ending with the letter "C" and found that over 2,000 were listed but only two (not counting abbreviations and acronyms, of which there were hundreds, and a few surnames listed, for crying out loud!) were of just one syllable. One was my already mentioned "chic" and the other was "croc" which was listed as "informal" for "crocodile." Am I to assume that everybody who had a "C" thread came up with one of these two words on their own?? Fess up, now! (Sidenote: "Croc" is also defined as "UK informal - a group of people, usually children, walking in a line in pairs." Odd...) | |||
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quote:That's a crocodile. I've never heard it called a "croc". | |||
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In response to Tinman about "boobjob" and "bicarb": This all goes back to a question I had months ago on this site--when does a word become a word? I realize these words make the cut since they appear in dictionaries, so I am not refuting Tinman nor Shufitz anymore. However, I don't agree that either of these words should appear in dictionaries. "Bicarb" is merely the lazy person's "bicarbonate". Since it is a chemical anyway, I think it is inappropriate for OED, or any other dictionary, to have given in to this definition. "Boobjob" is worse because it is a made-up word about a surgical procedure--"mammoplasty". I could come up with thousands of abbreviated words about medical or surgical procedures, chemicals, drugs, etc. as there are many long long words in these fields. However, that would serve, as these words have, to complicate our language. Now, when does a word become a word? I could develop a new word right here: "Tinmanism" the process of comprehensively searching the internet for answers. Wordcrafter, who is developing a dictionary, could put that in the dictionary and eventually publish it online. Along the way, someone will find it, it will get cited somewhere else, and soon....it will become a word. Appropriate? I don't think so. [This message was edited by Kalleh on Mon Mar 24th, 2003 at 11:12.] | |||
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quote: Actually, the one I had was "benumb". And it took me forever to find it. Wouldn't have bothered, but I needed it to get credit for me three-syllable word. | |||
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quote: I thought it was two words, too, and was surprised to see it listed as one word. My three-syllable "b" words were "baobab" and "Beelzebub" (I mispelled it "Bealazbub"). Neither one counted since I couldn't think of a two-syllable word. Tinman | |||
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quote: Per AHD: SYLLABICATION: Be·el·ze·bub It's four syllables! | |||
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quote: You're right! I'm embarrassed! Tinman | |||
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quote: I was going to say, "it's my turn, now. It's syllabification, not syllabication". But fortunately I had sense enough to look it up in the AHD first. Both are correct. I learned a new word today. Tinman [This message was edited by tinman on Sun Mar 30th, 2003 at 1:11.] | |||
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Speaking of Beelzebub here. Apparently it literally means "Lord of Dung" or "Lord of the Flies". I wonder if the novel of that title has was named with reference to this. | |||
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quote: "Forever," Hmmm? There was a time limit to this exercise, y'know. Ref "croc" - I had read this term term before but always as "crock." And I noticed that no one commented on my wondering about everyone else's one-syllable "C" word or the semi-brilliance of "Qatar-Iraq." Any other good words from the "hard" letters? | |||
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One More Quiz (a relatively easy one, maybe?) What is the significance of the following column of words? Embrace Courtship Engagements Bedroom Explosive Excitements Outbreak Retirement (hmmm... Not so easy, maybe? Private topic me if you get it and you believe no one else will. I really don't know. Answer next Monday.) | |||
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It seems to me that it's just a description of the phases a marriage goes through. (Though nowadays the Bedroom-Excitements-Explosions usually come before the Engagements!) | |||
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I didn't receive any private posts on this one so I assume that no one recognized all of these words as being original with Shakespeare. Final Standings: Me - 17 TrossL - 15 Museamuse - 14 BobHale - Mimsy Morgan - 8 3/4 TinMan - two cubed Kalleh - 6 Shufitz - 6 (no sharing work, you guys!) Arnie - 23 but disqualified for scoring too high. | |||
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Now you've told us the answer I did know that (honestly !) it just didn't occur to me when I saw the quiz. I should have got that though. Still for a non participant a score of "mimsy" (flimsy and miserable according to Humpty) isn't too bad. Vescere bracis meis. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. | |||
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quote: I don't understand how I scored 8 points when I didn't even enter! Tinman | |||
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Wordcraft Home Page Wordcraft Community Home Page Forums Questions & Answers about Words It's about time we had another quiz - so, a quiz about time
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