In this on-line quiz, inn each case the question is "Which of the following sentences uses _____ correctly?" Your reporter must admit to knowing only four of the ten words, though of course one could get more answers from context.

1. nixie
a) That pink hair dye makes you look really nixie!
b) The printer uses an old T30 nixie driver, so we can't replace it.
c) It's a long opera about a nixie who lives in a river and can't find love.

2. oolong
a) I really oolong for a nice cup of tea.
b) Oolong as you're up, would you get me some tea?
c) I wouldn't have asked for tea if I'd known you were going to make oolong.

3. phthisis
a) Despite her ongoing battle with phthisis, the opera diva can still sing wonderfully.
b) Raphael's Cupid and Phthisis sold for $13.5 million today.
c) Phthisis the nicest restaurant we've ever been in.

4. pipit
a) The mark of a great golf player is skill with the pipit.
b) The song of the pipit convinced him that spring had arrived at last.
c) If you pipit the engine valves, you'll get better gas mileage.

5. queue
a) Once found in rivers throughout Patagonia, the wild queue is now endangered.
b) Guidebooks warn that Buckingham Palace has the longest queue in London.
c) To succeed as a model, you need to look queue and to act queue.

6. rigmarole
a) Why should I go through all that rigmarole to buy a concert ticket?
b) And for dessert, a chocolate rigmarole!
c) An expert sailor can rigmarole even in a high wind.

7. syzygy
a) They used to be a reggae band, but now they play mostly syzygy.
b) I don't want to hear any syzygy excuses; I want action!
c) The eclipse that was visible over most of Connecticut occurred by syzygy.

8. teosinte
a) The field of teosinte swayed gracefully in the warm breeze.
b) Teosinte, the Aztec ritual ball game, could involve teams of 200 players.
c) Madame Curie isolated teosinte from radium, thereby creating the modern electric battery.

9. vug
a) The Albanian vug, once worth three lira, is now barely equal to the piastre.
b) I feel totally vug today, so maybe I'm getting a cold.
c) This rock has so many vugs, it looks like Swiss cheese.

10. wadi
a) Built entirely of volcanic wadi, the house is a classic of modern architecture.
b) The wadi may seem dry as a bone now, but in the rainy season it can become a torrent.
c) This melody for wadi and oud has become the anthem of the Moroccan labor movement.

1 b. This a guess. The only definition of "nixie" I know of is "undeliverable letter".

2 c. Easy one. Everyone should know this one.

3 a. I've heard of this word. I can't quite remember exactly what it means, but it seems to me it's a medical condition.

4. b. Don't know. WAG

5 b. We've talked about this before on this board. All you Brits better get this one.

6 a. Every American should get this. I don't know how common it is elsewhere.

7 c. I've heard the word before, but don't remember the definition. It seemed like it had smething to do with the alignment of the planets.

8 a. I believe it's an ancient grain plant from Mexico or South America.

9 a. Don't know. WAG.

10 b. It's a type of seasonal riverbed, dry much of the year. I believe it's an African term.

And no, I didn't look any of them up.

Tinman

I haven't looked any of these up, either.
1. c)
2. c) - Hey, I'm British. We run on tea.
3. a) - Guess
4. b)
5. b) - I'm British, remember?
6. a)
7. c)
8. a) - WAG
9. c) - another WAG
10. b)

I didn't look them up either. (Ooh, ooh, do we get graded?)

1.b
2.c
3.a
4.a
5.b
6.a
7.b
8.a
9.c
10.b

I also knew four of them, and used context and sheer unmitigated guesswork for the rest. (Woohoo, I'll bet I get a 40!)

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I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda!--Bart Simpson
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ccbbbacbab

5 I know, 2 I think I might know, 2 are WAGs

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

If I may ask?


Does WAG equal? Wild Ass Guess? Surely something more erudite 'round these parts?



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I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda!--Bart Simpson
---------

quote:

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Originally posted by WinterBranch:
If I may ask?


Does WAG equal? Wild Ass Guess? Surely something more erudite 'round these parts?



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I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda!--Bart Simpson
---------

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Nope, nothing more erudite I'm afraid. We used to do quizes fairly regularly here and we all picked up the word WAG from CJ.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

WAG is an abbreviated form of SWAG, the Stupid Wild-Ass Guess.

AcronymFinder will tell you the S is for scientific, or silly, or sophisticated, but what do they know?

Sorry. I should have posted the answers.

1. nixie: A female water sprite of Germanic folklore (masc. = nix).
c) It's a long opera about a nixie who lives in a river and can't find love.
Nixie can also mean an undeliverable letter, addressed wrong or illegibly. Also, there is such a thing as a "nixie driver" in printed circuits, so another answer may make sense too: "The printer uses an old T30 nixie driver, so we can't replace it."

2. oolong: A dark Chinese tea that has been partially fermented before drying
c) I wouldn't have asked for tea if I'd known you were going to make oolong.

3. phthisis: Tuberculosis of the lungs
a) Despite her ongoing battle with phthisis, the opera diva can still sing wonderfully.

4. pipit: small songbirds resembling larks
b) The song of the pipit convinced him that spring had arrived at last.

5. queue: a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
b) Guidebooks warn that Buckingham Palace has the longest queue in London.

6. rigmarole or rigamarole: a long and complicated and confusing procedure
a) Why should I go through all that rigmarole to buy a concert ticket?

7. syzygy: the straight line configuration of 3 celestial bodies in a gravitational system
c) The eclipse that was visible over most of Connecticut occurred by syzygy.

8. teosinte: A large grass closely related to maize, cultivated for fodder
a) The field of teosinte swayed gracefully in the warm breeze.

9. vug: a small unfilled cavity in a lode or in rock
c) This rock has so many vugs, it looks like Swiss cheese.

10. wadi: gully or streambed in northern Africa and the Middle East that remains dry except during rainy season
b) The wadi may seem dry as a bone now, but in the rainy season it can become a torrent.

Congratulations, Arnie! You got them all!

Tinman

Wow, that's a surprise. I was fairly sure about seven or eight answers, but two were just WAGs. Bet I don't do as well in the new quiz!

quote:

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Originally posted by tinman: Congratulations, Arnie! You got them all!

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Somehow, I'm not the least bit suprised.