Unusual Words - Can You Spell Them? Quiz

Answer: internecine

Internecine means relating to or involving conflict within a group, such as a family, an organisation or a country. It comes from the Latin "inter" (between or mutual) and "necare" (to kill). Internecine meant "deadly" when it appeared in English in the early 17th century but the modern meaning usually refers to a fight that is harmful or destructive to all sides involved, but not necessarily deadly.

Answer: pseudocarp

This word does not mean "false fish"; it means "false fruit", from the Greek "pseudes" (false, lying) and "karpos" (fruit). Fruits can be classified as either true or false fruits. A true fruit grows only from the ovary of a flower after fertilization. Examples include tomatoes, grapes, lemons, coconuts, and mangoes.

A false fruit (also known as an accessory fruit or pseudocarp) grows from other parts of the flower, such as the receptacle or sepals. Examples include apples, pears, strawberries, pineapples, and cashews.

By the way, if a false fruit is a pseudocarp, the corresponding term for a true fruit is eucarp, from the Greek "eu" (true, good, well).

Answer: sphagnum

Sphagnum is the genus name of a group of approximately 380 species of mosses. It is derived from the ancient Greek "sphagnos" meaning "the name of a spiny shrub and a kind of moss". It is pronounced S-FAG-num. (Sphagnum rhymes with magnum, but I've yet to see that in a poem).

Sphagnum moss is widely used in gardening and terrariums, particularly those for reptiles, because it holds up to 20 times its weight in water while maintaining good airflow.

Answer: pejorate

The words pejorate and (the more commonly heard) pejorative are often confused with the unrelated word "perjury". Pejorate and pejorative are derived from the Latin "peiorare" meaning "to make something worse". (The reason for the use of the letter "i" instead of "j" in peiorare is because the classical Latin alphabet did not contain the letter "j". The letter "j" evolved later as a variant of "i").

When a word is described as being pejorative, it means that it has a negative or disrespectful connotation. An example would be to refer to someone as stubborn or obstinate, instead of the more neutral words firm or resolute. In terms of the meaning "depreciate in value", an example of usage is reflected in the following sentence: "The peeling paint had a pejorative effect on the market value of the house".

Answer: serpivolant

Believe it or not, there are such things as flying serpents although, strictly speaking, they glide rather than utilise true flight as they do not have wings. True flight is achieved by using muscles or active thrust whereas gliding is unpowered flight where an animal moves forward while slowly descending, often using rising air currents to stay up.

Flying serpents belong to a group of snakes called Chrysopelea that live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. They glide through the air from one tree to another by jumping from a high branch, flattening their bodies to catch the air like a parachute, and wiggling through the sky to steer. They can glide up to 24 metres (almost 80 feet).

Serpivolent is derived from the Latin words "serpens" (snake or creeping thing) and "volare" (to fly). Perhaps if more serpents flew, this word would be more widely known.

Answer: verbigerate

Verbigeration is the act of saying an entire sentence more than once...by mistake.

The verb verbigerate comes from the Latin word "verbigerare" (meaning to talk, chat, or exchange words) which in turn was derived from "verbum" (word) and "gerere" (to carry or bear). It is first recorded in English during the 17th century and kept its Latin meaning, i.e. it referred to casual talking or chatting. However, in the late 19th Century, psychiatrists adopted the word as a medical term to describe the obsessive, meaningless repetition of words or phrases as a symptom of mental illness. In a non-medical or literary sense, it means to monotonously repeat the same sentences, phrases and ideas without variation.

Answer: cynophobia

Cynophobia means extreme fear of dogs and is pronounced SIGH-no-phobia. This phobia is estimated to affect approximately 1 in 20 people (about 5%) and is included in the top ten most common phobias in many medical texts (being ranked about number 5 on average). This medical term is derived from the Greek "kyon" (dog) and "phobos" (fear).

Answer: imbroglio

Singer Natalie Imbruglia may well be confused or embarrassed once in a while, like anyone, but she's not the definition of it.

The word imbroglio is an Italian word meaning "tangle or confusion". It was adopted into the English language around the mid-1700s, at first meaning a confused mess before it evolved to refer to a messy public argument, or a complicated embarrassing scandal.

When words such as imbroglio are taken directly from another language without any change in spelling or meaning, they are (informally) called loan words or borrowed words. Technically, they are called xenonyms, from the Greek "xenos" (meaning foreigner, stranger or guest) and "onoma" (name).

Answer: bdelloid

What? No vowel between the 'B' and the 'D'? I'm afraid so, and the 'B' is silent too - the microscopic critter is pronounced DELL-oid.

Bdelloids (or bdelloid rotifers) are microscopic multi-celled freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Rotifera. The word bdelloid comes from the Greek words "bdella" (leech) and "eidos" (form, shape or like), hence "leech-like". This is because their method of locomotion resembles that of leeches. Fun fact - bdelloids are all female and no males have ever been found. They reproduce by parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction where an embryo grows from an unfertilised egg and all the genetic material comes from one parent.

Answer: malmsey

I've long thought that this word looked as if it ought to instead describe the wobbly semi-walk that tends to happen after consuming a little too much "sweet, scented wine".

Its name comes from a Greek town called Monemvasia which was famous for its sweet wine. Over hundreds of years, people in different countries changed the sound of the town's name until it became "malmsey" in English. The wine began with the name of the town Monemvasia, which is derived from the Greek "monos" (one) and "embasis" (entrance) because there was only one way in and out of the town. The Greeks traded the wine with neighbouring countries Italy and France, where it was known as Malvasia and Malvoisie respectively. In Germany and Holland it was known as Malemesye. Eventually it travelled to England where it became known as malmsey.