Monday, January 12, 2009

Trivia Day - The Word Edition: Answers

I've got a screaming head cold today and just got off of a 90-minute conference call with an unhappy customer. I'm at home in a robe sweating with a fever and waiting for the rest of my left lung to come up with the next coughing fit. Either that, or for my entire red, irritated nose to wind up in the tissue the next time I sneeze.

Still, I said I'd publish these answers today, so here they are. If you think I'm wrong on some of these, I have to say that at this point I really could not possibly care less. I'm going to go lie down.

Here's the post I originally had written:

Some fun. At least a few more people gave this one a shot than on the previous one. Thanks for reading, and I hope it was fun, if not educational.

Here are the answers:

1) What's the longest word in the English language that contains only one vowel?
Strengths - Nine letters, one vowel.

2) What are the two words in the English language that contain all the vowels, including "y", in alphabetical order?
facetiously - In a facetious or flippant manner; in a manner that treats serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor

and

abstemiously - Marked by abstinence or restraint, especially in relation to food or drink. I'm surprised that one of you, Mike, got this one.

3) What's the shortest non-capitalized word in the English language that contains all the vowels, not including "y"?
eunoia - A medical term that means "a state of normal mental health". I'm not surprised that no one got this one.

4) There is one word (and its variants) in the English language that contains 3 doubled letters (like "tt", "rr", etc.) in a row. What is it?
bookkeeper (or bookkeeping, etc.), also identified by Mike.

5) What's the original plural of the word "opus"?
opera - As identified by Bilbo and Mike.

6) Linguists refer to a word in which no letter is used more than once as an isogram. What's the longest isogram in English?
uncopyrightables - No other 16-letter (or longer) word has no repeated letters. Identified by Mike.

7) What's the only common English word (plus any derivatives) that ends in the letters "mt"?
dreamt - As identified by Fiona and Mike.

8) There are only two common words (and their derivatives) that end in the letters "shion". What are they?
cushion and fashion - As identified by Fiona, Eudea-Mamia, and Mike.

9) There are no common English words that contain all the letters "a" through "g". What are the two shortest English words that contain all the letters "a" through "f"?
There are lots of words in English that contain all of the letters "a" through "f", but the two shortest ones are feedback and boldface. Mike got one of these.

10) There is only one common English word that has 5 vowels in a row. What is it?
queuing. Mike got this, although he misspelled it with 6 vowels in a row.

11) What's the longest word with only one syllable? This applies to American English only, as the English English and most other English-speaking countries would pronounce it with two syllables, and in fact I suspect that some would argue about it even in America. It's my quiz, and this is pretty widely accepted, so don't fight me on it.
squirrelled

Oh, by the way, did I happen to mention the upcoming good time that's going to be had by everybody who's anybody in the DC area on January 18th? It's not too late to sign up. Just go here or here or here and follow the instructions. We look forward to seeing our new friends and to making even more new friends. Don't miss it!

6 comments:

Mike said...

I'm still waiting on my complimentary plane ticket from the bloggers association.

Ash said...

I'm pretty sure Mike used Google. ;-)

Not a sore loser, just saying...

Hope you feel better soon!! What a bloggy trouper you are - thanks for the ansers.

Mike said...

The answer is in the original post at the end of the comments.

Gilahi said...

Mike - Hope, among other things, springs eternal.

Eudea-Mamia - Mike apparently subscribes to the Bill Clinton defense method.

rachaelgking said...

Please feel better, darling!

Gilahi said...

LiLu - Thanks. Working on it.

 
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