More Crossword Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: aril

"Aril" derives from the Latin word "arillus", meaning "raisin" and was first used in the late 18th century in a botanical text. The Latin root word is also used in its own right to describe the covering of a seed. The word is used mainly as a botanical descriptor, but I'm sure if you drop it into a sentence, your friends will be very impressed!

Answer: elan

"Elan" is another one of those words that the English language has borrowed directly from French. Elan derives from the French verb "elancer", meaning "to lance". Hence, the word "elan" appears to have a military origin, with the Oxford English Dictionary Online defining it as "An impetuous rush (eg, of troops)".

However, in English usage, the word is most commonly taken to mean ardour or impetuousness.

Answer: ela

The things you learn by doing crosswords! The word "ela" is derived by combining the letter of the note "E" with "la", the syllable used to sing the note. Not really being a musical person, I'm just going to quote from www.oed.com, which defines ela as "The highest note in the Gamut, or the highest note of the 7th Hexachord of Guido, answering to the upper E in the treble." Fellow FunTrivia-ite spanishliz told me a while ago that she has seen "Guido's highest note" as a clue for "ela", which got us both wondering who "Guido" is/was.

It is possible that he was one Guido D'Arezzo, a mediaeval Italian musician, who is credited as the creator of the musical notation used today.

Answer: aloe

"Aloe" is derived from the plural of the Old English word "alue" (itself adapted from Latin). Aloe most commonly refers to both a number of species in a particular genus of plants that all contain a bitter-tasting juice as well as the drug derived from the juice. Less frequently, it is also used to refer to a fragrant wood mentioned in the Bible.

Answer: Russian tea urn

"Samovar" is taken directly from Russian; the word is a combination of two Russian words meaning "self-boiler". Samovars usually sit in the middle of the table and feature a tube running through them into which pieces of lighted charcoal are dropped, thus keeping the water inside hot.

Answer: tenet

Latin provides English with a lot of its words, and this one is no exception: "tenet" is taken directly from Latin and means "he holds" (the third person singular of the verb "tenere", "to hold"). Its first recorded English usage was in the 17th century, and probably came about as an adaptation of modern Latin writings which introduced the word as meaning a principle held by a certain person or group of people (eg, the clergy).

Answer: rider

Besides the obvious definition of "one who rides a horse", "rider" has a number of other definitions, including that of "An additional clause tacked onto a document after its first drafting" (www.oed.com). Also, a rider is used in nautical terminology in describing a set of timbers or metal plates used to strengthen the frame of a ship; in mining to describe a thin seam of coal or another deposit overlying the main deposit, and in gardening to define a tree used temporarily to cover the upper part of a wall.

Answer: ergot

French again provides the word "ergot" for English usage - in French, it means "cock's spur" (derived from the Old French "argot"), and came to describe this particular disease of rye because the fungus causing the disease ends up taking a shape resembling that of a cock's spur.

Answer: anil

"Anil" derives from the French and Spanish (via an adaptation of Arabic) words for "dark blue" or "indigo" and is used to describe both the plant from which the indigo-coloured dye comes as well as the dye itself. The word has also been incorporated into the chemical lexicon as part of the word "aniline". Aniline dyes are those featuring a similar chemical structure to that of the original aniline dye, anil (also known as indigo).

Answer: of wings

The Latin word for "wing" is "ala" and it is from this that the English word "alar" is derived. As well as describing anything to do with wings, it can also mean winglike or wing-shaped. Thanks for playing this quiz; I hope I've helped fill in a few gaps you may have had in your crosswords!

Another sentence to go forth and impress your friends with: The rock star's rider indicated that he required an anil-decorated samovar but he burnt himself on it with such elan that an application of aloe was immediately required!