Sesquipedalius' G Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: sailing ships arranged for combat

The earliest use of the word "gamut" occurs as a musical notation. It shortens a two-word phrase "gamma ut" to "gamut." The Greek word "gamma" represents the lowest note written within the treble scale. The word "ut" was later changed to the first (lowest) note in a scale: "do." The use of the word "gamut" expanded first to mean the entire range of musical notes and then to mean the full and complete range of anything (e.g. red bears, coastal villages, stars in the Southern Sky, pink postage stamps, spices made from bark.)

Amazon.com is a global retailer and reseller which stocks such a wide variety of products that Brad Stone's 2013 book about the company was named "The Everything Store." Sirius XM is an American broadcasting company that streams satellite radio and online radio services. The number and type of "channels" changes frequently but includes the genres rock, pop, country, R&B, hip-hop, electronic dance, jazz, show tunes, folk music, symphonic and something called "yacht rock." In colour reproduction (printing, monitors, photography), a system which offers a complete subset of colours may be said to "run the colour gamut." During the Age of Sail, large warships would align themselves in a tactical formation called "the line of battle" and such sailing ships thus became known as "ships of the line."

Answer: two lines of attacking punishers

Several Native American tribes of the Eastern Woodlands used the gauntlet as a method of corporal punishment or even execution. Warriors formed two lines. The prisoner was forced to run between them while they used sticks and other weapons to beat him.

Some European cultures (e.g. Swedish) used it, as well. "Running the gauntlet" is distinguished from the unrelated term "gauntlet" meaning an armoured glove worn by a knight in armour. It is from this word for a glove that the Old French phrase "tendre son gantelet" (throw down the gauntlet), meaning "to issue a challenge to combat", entered English. Running the gauntlet has also acquired a metaphoric meaning: to endure unpleasant scrutiny, criticism, and hostility in public. An example is the aggressive pursuit of celebrities by photographers ("paparazzi") trying to get a candid picture.

Answer: a branched candelabrum with a mirror

Stevens' poem has little sympathy for the social conventions of 1920s America. The verb "to fub" means to cheat, trick, or deceive. The noun "girandoles" describes ornate branched candelabra, often of silver, with mirrors to reflect and (seem to) amplify the candles' light.

The simple natural moonlight steals attention from the artificial light of mirrored candles. The English "girandole" crossed over from the French "girandole" and the Italian "girandola" in the early 17th century. The Franco-Italian nouns derived from the Latin "gyrare" meaning "to revolve, to turn in a circle." The Latin almost certainly descends from the Greek "gyros" meaning "ring or circle."

Answer: a magical humanoid creature

According to Jewish folklore, a golem is a simulacrum of a human being made of an inanimate substance such as clay to which life is magically given. The term is of Hebrew origin. In many of these legends, the golem becomes animate when a Hebrew word is carved into its forehead or written on a scroll which is then inserted in its mouth.

Some versions of the golem have appeared in silent film, modern movies and television, short stories, poetry and novels, comic books, tabletop and video games, and opera.

In the "Xanth" series, Grundy Golem began life as a tiny (doll-sized) golem made by Magician Humfrey out of clay and string. Grundy later became human but did not attain human size.

Answer: a classic trail mix

GORP is a trail mix based on raisins and peanuts. It appears to be infinitely customizable [I ate some with Japanese seaweed crackers in it once]. Other potential ingredients include M&Ms, chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, dried sultanas, dried currants, dried apricots, dried mangos, banana chips, crystallised ginger, yoghurt chips, shredded coconut, almonds, cashews, shelled pistachios, and granola.

The idea behind the recipes is to supplement nutrition between meals while hiking, mountain climbing, or other vigorous outdoor activities.

Innumerable sources declare that "GORP" is an acronym for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts." The Oxford English Dictionary respectfully disagrees and suggests that this is a backronym.

Answer: a place where grain is stored

The Book of Genesis and the surah Yusuf tell (mostly) the same story. Joseph predicts seven years of agricultural bounty followed by seven years of food scarcity. According to the Quran, he said to Pharaoh, "Give me charge of the granaries of the land. I shall husband them wisely'" (12:55) Then, according to Genesis, "[h]e gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt, and stored up food in the cities ... So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance-like the sand of the sea-that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure." (vv. 48-49 NRSV).

The Latin word for the places where Joseph stashed the threshed grain is "horrea" and the Greek word is "sitobolonas", both of which mean "a storehouse or granary." More modern terms might be barn, grain elevator, or silo.

The modern term granary may be used metaphorically or as a simile. "Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told." ~Wendell Berry. The Modern English noun "granary" derived from the Latin "granum" meaning "grain" and the Latin "granaria" (plural) meaning "grain storehouse" in the 16th century. Both "grainary" and "grainery" are barbarisms.

Answer: pompous, intended to impress

A use of language which is pretentious, ostentatious, pompous, bombastic, orotund, fustian, florid, periphrastic, and euphuistic may properly be called grandiloquent. The user's intention is to attract attention, induce admiration, and impress. Grandiloquent speakers are likely to be called vain, pompous, puffed up, or self-important. Simply put, grandiloquent is a fancy and pretentious word meaning fancy and pretentious.

The Modern English adjective "grandiloquent" was adapted from Latin in the late 16th or early 17th century. The Latin "grandiloquus" was a compound of the adjective "grandis" meaning "big or large" and "loqui" meaning "to speak." The ending changed over time to sound more like the ending of "eloquent."

Answer: ugly facial contortion showing emotion

A grimace is a facial distortion in which the brow furrows, the mouth is misshapened, the eyes are squinted or shut, and the features are generally distorted. Grimacing is expressive; it discloses a mental state. People describe a grimace as ugly and/or twisted. It arises from an emotional state of disgust, discomfort, disapproval, distress, dislike, pain, or wry amusement.

The noun and the verb grimace found their way into English from a German source: the Proto-Germanic "grimô" meaning "mask, helmet, cover, night"; the Old Saxon "grima" meaning "face mask," Old English grima "mask, helmet"), the Old Frankish "grima" meaning mask, and the Old English "grima" meaning "mask, visor, helmet, spectre, or apparition." Compare the Old French "grimace" meaning "grotesque face, ugly mug."

Answer: innocent and free of deceit

In the middle 12th century, the Old French noun "guile" meant "a trick or ruse, fraud, deceit." This word probably descended from older Germanic words having to do with sorcery, witchcraft, and idols. When the suffix "-less" was added to it in the early 18th century, it produced an adjective meaning "without guile." The Old English suffix "-leas" means "free from, devoid of, lacking, or without." When "guile" and "-less" are conjoined, the resulting Modern English adjective denotes "free from guile" or "without guile" and connotes "naive" or "ingenuous."

Answer: relating to the sense of taste

Wallace was on assignment for Gourmet Magazine covering the 2003 Maine Lobster Festival. He produced an essay titled "Consider the Lobster" which was published in the August 2004 issue and then republished in 2005 in a book "Consider the Lobster and Other Essays." In it, he challenges the ethics of tossing a live lobster into a pot of boiling water in order to cook it. By his use of the adjective "gustatory", he means those things which are pleasing to the taste buds and the sense of smell of a diner.

The word "gustatory" crossed from Latin into English in the late 1600s. The cognates are "gustatus" and "gustare" meaning "to taste."