1. Babia majora
A very attractive woman (in ancient Rome); Wayne's World
2. Babraham Lincoln
A very attractive woman who is president; Wayne's World
4. Cromulent
Acceptable/Useful ("Embiggens is a perfectly cromulent word."); Simpsons
5. Embiggen
To make bigger ; The Simpsons
6. Fecoventilatory collision
When the shit hits the fan;Vineland,Thomas Pynchon
7. Grok
To understand;Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8. Hurm
Interjection of ambiguous meaning; Rorshach,Watchmen comics
9. Kimota
Injerjection, used to transform (like SHAZAM); Marvelman aka Miracleman
10. Macguffin
a red herring and/or significant plot element; Hitchcock
11. Mellon
Elvish for "friend" (the key to open the gate of Moria); Tolkien
12. Mithrandir
Elvish name for Gandalf ("Grey Pilgrim"); Tolkien
13. Splunge
it's-a-great-idea-but-possibly-not-and-I'm-not-being-indecisive; Monty Python [20th Century Vole sketch]
14. Massachusetts, plural noun -
Those items and particles which people who, after blowing their noses, are searching for when they look into their hankies.
15. Dorchester, noun -
A throaty cough by someone else so timed as to obscure the crucial part of the rather amusing remark you've just made.
16. Ipswich, noun -
The sound at the other end of the telephone which tells you that the automatic exchange is working very hard but is intending not actually to connect you this time, merely to let you know how difficult it is.
17. Plymouth, verb -
To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place.
18. Yarmouth, verb -
To shout at foreigners in the belief that the louder you speak, the better they'll understand you.
19. From what source do the above words come?
"The Meaning of Liff", by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd
20. What significance does this source hold for the team that won last semester's contest?
Douglas Adams died on May 12, 2001, the day we won the spring contest. This is our little tribute to him. Rest in peace, o man who gave us Slartibartfast.
English is a nifty language and all, but it has its flaws. For instance, there are some ideas and concepts that we just don't have any exact words for.
Below is a list of eighteen actual words from various foreign languages that don't have an exact English translation; and you will find a list of eighteen definitions. Match the word with its definition.
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1. |
adjal |
N. |
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2. |
animateur |
I. |
|
3. |
bricoleur |
J. |
|
4. |
dohada |
G. |
|
5. |
esprit d'escalier |
K. |
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6. |
faux frais |
E. |
|
7. |
fisselig |
D. |
|
8. |
fucha |
U. |
|
9. |
katzenjammer |
C. |
|
10. |
kekau |
O. |
|
11. |
korinthenkacker |
H. |
|
12 |
mamihlapinatapei |
F. |
|
13. |
ohrwurm |
A. |
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14. |
ponte |
L. |
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15. |
razbliuto |
M. |
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16. |
schlimmbesserung |
B. |
|
17. |
tartle |
Q. |
|
18. |
zwischenraum |
P. |
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A. |
A song that becomes wildly popular particularly quickly |
|
|
B. |
An action intended as an improvement that instead makes matters worse |
|
|
C. |
Extraordinarily severe hangover |
|
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D. |
Flustered to the point of incompetence |
|
|
E. |
Items one overlooks when making a budget |
|
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F. |
Meaningful look between two people which expresses mutual unstated feelings |
|
|
G. |
Particularly unusual pregnancy cravings |
|
|
H. |
Person overly concerned with minute, trivial details |
|
|
I. |
Person who creates things by tinkering around until something works |
|
|
J. |
Person with the ability to explain highly technical and difficult concepts to the layman |
|
|
K. |
The especially clever remark or comeback one thinks of only after the conversation has just ended |
|
|
L. |
The extra day you take off between a national holiday and the weekend when the holiday falls on Tuesday or Thursday |
|
|
M. |
The feeling a person has for someone s/he used to love but no longer does |
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|
N. |
The predestined hour of one's own death |
|
|
O. |
The sensation of waking up from a severe nightmare |
|
|
P. |
The space in between things |
|
|
Q. |
To temporarily forget the name of a person or thing |
|
|
R. |
Using the time and resources of one's place of employment for one's personal benefit |
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1. What is the lexicographic significance of the following list? Priest, town, earl, this, streale, ward, thing, theft, worth, then
They are, in order, the words with the 10 oldest citations in the OED (i.e., the oldest words in the English Language)
2. What 2 homonyms are the furthest apart from one another in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition?
ewe, you [note: accept better answer if they have one]
3. In Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, what is the longest word featuring all five vowels, appearing in order (though not necessarily adjoining) and each appearing only once?
abstentious ["abstemious" is NOT the longest in that dictionary]
4. As above, but including "y" as well?
abstemiously
1. What TV character was horrified to discover she had printed thousands of campaign buttons reading "Lance Brockwell for Mayro"?
Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt);Mad About You
2. If you saw a shop sign saying "Veruci Fucking Ghoti", what might you buy there? Justify this.
Fresh Fish -Veruci (pronounced fresh) is ve (have to have) r u (bury) ci (vicious); Fucking (in which all letters are silent): f (stuff) u (guild) c (muscle) k (knight) i (friend) n (solemn) g (sign); Ghoti (pronounced fish) is well known: gh as in rough, o as in women, ti as in station. [OTHER JUSTIFICATIONS ARE POSSIBLE]
3. The only misspelling in the entire Unabomber Manifesto appears to be this phrase.
venerial desease
4. Dan Quayle's favorite starch:
potatoe
5. Tony Blair's favorite day:
toomorrow
1. A fan site says she prefers G-string panties to Calvin Kleins, but this pop star's name anagrams to a group of Calvinists...
Britney Spears, Presbyterians
2. ...And one of her sponsors anagrams to a member of different religious sect.
Pepsi-Cola, Episcopal
3. This three-word phrase for a part of a musical instrument anagrams to a two-phrase for where that part might have been found.
The Piano Bench, beneath Chopin
4. This one-word title of a 70s movie with Laurence Olivier anagrams to a 70s movie with Burt Reynolds.
Sleuth/Hustle
5. One won an AL batting title in the 1960s, the other a Cy Young award in the 1980s - both for the same team. Their last names are anagrams of each other. Who are they?
Oliva, Viola
6. What country anagrams to the name of an actress?
Germany, Meg Ryan [others possible]
7. A place where most of you participating live becomes a place within that place where you live, sometimes.
dormitory, dirty room
8. This operetta's title can be anagrammed to a phrase describing that title.
HMS Pinafore, name of ship
9. This U.S. President anagrams to a three-word insult that Saddam Hussein might have used to describe him. Who is he and what is the insult?
Ronald Wilson Reagan, insane Anglo warlord
1. What are the ten words created in the five turns of the sample game in the standard Scrabble instructions?
TURN ONE:
HORN
TURN TWO:
FARM
TURN THREE:
PASTE, FARMS
TURN FOUR:
MOB, NOT, RE
TURN FIVE:
BIT, PI, AT
2. In Woody Allen's short story "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers" a pair of pen pals fumble through a hilariously miscommunicated chess match, in which they have totally different understandings about whose pieces are where. In an effort to restart the correspondence on a better foot, one of them suggests they play pen pal Scrabble . He picks a seemingly thorny set of letters which just happen to spell what high-scoring word meaning "a supervisor of irrigation canals"?
ZANJERO
3. What is the longest official Scrabble dictionary word without a vowel (or a Y)?
TSKTSK or TSKTSKS
4. You've got a Q, but no U. What are the two longest legal Scrabble words you can make?
QINDARKA [Albanian monetary units]; SHEQALIM [ancient units of weight/money]
5. On the "Bob Newhart Show," Howard once used all his letters to form a word which he claimed was "someone fond of zoos." On a challenge, it turns out to be a legal word, but a type of sponge. What's the word?
ZOOPHYTE
6. On "Saturday Night Live," a character once played a three-letter word and claimed it was a picnic food. It was challenged on the grounds there should be a "W" at the end. What's the word, who's the character?
SLA, Patty Hearst
7. "Kwyjibo" would score 152 points if played on a Scrabble board as one character attempted, claiming it means "a fat balding North American ape with no chin." Who made this play?
Bart Simpson
1. In a recent Sprint ad, a coach's request for "a back-up for O'Neal" is misheard as what?
The Captain and Tenille
2. Malacy McCourt's autobiography, "A Monk Swimming" takes it name from where? What's the correct phrase?
The Holy Mary prayer; "amongst women"
3. What kind of advertising did Bush deny employing in the 2000 campaign?
subliminable
4. Please correct the following misheard song lyrics (and identify the song):
a) The girl with colitis goes by
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes; Lucy in the Sky w/Diamonds (Beatles)
b) 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky; Purple Haze (Hendrix)
c) Beelzebub has a devil for a sideboard
Beelzebub has devil put aside for [me] ; Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
d) Killed in a bar when he was only three
Killed him a b'ar [bear] when he was only three; Ballad of Davy Crockett
e) The ants are my friends
The answer, my friends; Blowin' in the Wind (Dylan)
f) There's a bathroom on the right
There's a Bad Moon on the Rise; BadMoon on the Rise (CCR)
g) Wrapped up like a douche, another roller in the night
Wrapped up like a deuce, another runner in the night; Blinded by the Light (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
h) Islands of Seals
Our lips our sealed; Our Lips Are Sealed (GoGos)
i) Hold me closer, Tony Danza
Hold me closer, tiny dancer ; Tiny Dancer (Elton John)
j) Oh, they have slain the Earl of Morray and Lady Mondegreen
Oh, they have slain the Earl of Morry and laid him on the green
5. Why is this last one significant?
A "mondegreen" is a misheard word or phrase, like all these song lyrics
1. In Monty Python's The Life of Brian, Brian attempts to write "Romans go home" in Latin on the wall, but in fact he writes what?
Romanes eunt domus
2. And to what does it translate, according to the centurion who accosts him, in English?
People called Romanes they go the house
3. What does Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" translate to, in Berlin?
I am a jelly-filled doughnut [Berliners do not refer to themselves as "Berliners" - that word refers to a particularly kind of jelly-filled doughnut]
4. In the 1960's what Pepsi slogan was purportedly mistranslated into Chinese with disastrous results? What was the mistranslation?
Come Alive! You're the Pepsi Generation; Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead [Come alive out of the grave with Pepsi, Bring dead ancestors back from heaven]
5. KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) found that its "Finger-Lickin' Good" slogan was translated into what in Chinese?
Eat Your Fingers Off
6. When Ford Motor Co. marketed the Pinto in Brazil, they discovered that "pinto" was Brazilian slang for what unfortunate phrase?
Small penis
The above is a translation of particular phrase from English into each of the twenty-five or so languages available on a particular web translation engine (translating back into English each time). While this gobbledygook is utterly senseless, we do think you can identify the original phrase and the languages into which it is translated in each of the samples below.
1. Eu digo "é pato estação" e eu digo "incendiar"!
Portuguese
2. Jáøku "ono [is] drahou...ek roèn" doba" a jáøku "horeèka"!
Czech
3. Digo "está zabullir temporada" y digo "fuego"!
Spanish
4. Ako sabihin "ito ay umilag rikaduhan" at ako sabihin "isisante"!
Tagalog
5. Je dis "le c'est se baisser vivement saison" et je dis "tirer"!
French
6. Ich stehen "es ist ducken würzen" und ich stehen "abdrücken"!
German
7. Ég segja "það er önd árst"ð" og ég segja "eldur"!
Icelandic
8. Io per esempio "è anatra stagione" e io per esempio "fuoco"!
Italian
9. Suchaj "to jest kaczka pora" i suchaj "zapaliæ"!
Polish
10. Én mond "ez kacsa évszak" és én mond "kilõ"!
Hungarian
11. Jag säga "den er anka årstiden" och jag säga "elden"!
Swedish
12. Ddeuda "dydy drochi blasa" a ddeuda "danio"!
Welsh
13. I-kirjain sanoa "[it] on. [duck] vuodenaika" ja i-kirjain sanoa "tuli"!
Finnish
14. Ja ono ...to je kazano "posrijedi je patka godi...nje doba" i ja ono ...to je kazano "vatra"!
Croatian
15. The original phrase:
Well, I say "It's Duck Season" and I say, "Fire!"
A number of movies feature a significant, notable or otherwise vital word. For the movie, give the word; for the word, give the movie:
1. Citizen Kane
rosebud
2. Mary Poppins
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
3. The Usual Suspects**
Keyser Soze
4. Four Weddings and a Funeral
fuck
5. The Shining
redrum
6. West Side Story
Maria (the most beautiful word I ever heard)
7. Monty Python's "Buying a Bed" sketch
mattress (Did somebody say Mattress to Mr. Lambert?)
8. Silent Movie***
No!
9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (three sacred words)*
Ni; Pang; Nee-wom
12. *What fourth word is notable in this context, eventually?
13. **What was this character's other name (significant to this particular bonus)?
Verbal Kint
14. ***Who said this word?
Marcel Marceau
15. V'ger
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
16. Fiddle-dee-dee
Gone with the Wind
17. Gub
Take the Money and Run
18. Plastics
The Graduate
19. Klaatu barada nikto (actually three films)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (stops Gort); Toys (General says it to try and stop the dragon); Evil Dead 3 - Army of Darkness (password to retrieve the Necronomicon)
22. Klaatu barada nikto features in an interesting way in a fourth film, though this fact is never noted in the film or its credits. What is the film and how is the phrase used in it?
Star Wars Episode VI, RTOJ, three of Jabba the Huts skiff guards are named Klaatu, Barada and Nikto
But he DID....fill in the missing word or words in each Yogi Berra quote:
1. "All pitchers are liars or crybabies."
2. "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."
3. "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious."
4. "I don't know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads."
5. "I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did."
6. "I never said all the things I said ."
7. "It ain't the heat, it's the humility."
8. "I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."
9. "Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets."
10. "It's like deja vu all over again."
11. "You can observe a lot just by watching."
12. "You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours."
13. "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
1. This selection from the "Top 100 Books of the Twentieth Century" ends with a word whose letters all appear in its title. Which book is it?
Ulysses, "yes" [other answers may be possible]
2. In last month's 23-20 overtime win against Amherst, the Lord Jeffs featured a running back with 6 vowels in his name, including at least one of each (plus a Y). Name him.
Okey Ugwonali
3. In "Duck Soup," Groucho doesn't appear to mind being called a "swine" or a "worm." But what's the one word that drives him to violence?
upstart
4. In 1843, British general Sir Charles Napier, during the First Afghan War, is said to have sent the following telegram home following a three-day battle: "Peccavi." Why?
Peccavi is Latin for "I have sinned" - he had just taken the city of Sind in battle.
6. What is the lasting contribution to popular culture of the early 20th-century comic strip "Knocko the Monk"?
All the characters had names ending in -o, intended to convey a character trait. At a poker game one day, an agent started applying the same gimmick as he dealt cards to Leonard, Adolph and Julius Marx (and their two less-famous brothers Milton and Herbert).
7. What's significant about Ernest Vincent Wright's novel Gadsby and George Perec's La Disparation (A Void)?
Both were written with using the vowel E (the most common in their languages)
8. What's significant about Perec's short story, The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex ?
it only uses the vowel E
9. And, inevitably in a Words Bonus, one must ask: according to George Carlin, what are the Seven Dirty Words That You Cannot Say on Television?
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker
10. And, inevitably, to follow-up, what are the three "two-way" words that you can only use in the right context?
cock, balls, prick
But, there are some two-way words. There are double-meaning words. Remember the ones you giggled at in sixth grade? 'And the cock crowed three times.''Hey, the cock the cock crowed three times. It's in the bible.' There are some Two-way words, like it's okay for Kirk Goudy(sp?) to say 'Roberto Clemente has two balls on him.' But he can't say, 'I think he hurt his balls on that play Tony, don't you? He's holding them. He must have hurt them by God.' And the other two-way word that goes with that one is prick. It's okay if it happens to your finger. Yes, you can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick. No, no."