FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about A Catacomb of CAT Words
Quiz about A Catacomb of CAT Words

A Catacomb of CAT Words Trivia Quiz


Don't be a fraidy-cat when it comes to CAT words: words that begin with "cat", or have "cat" lurking in the middle somewhere. Some of these are straightforward, some come from the sciences, and some are purr-fectly obscure. How many can you identify?

A multiple-choice quiz by gracious1. Estimated time: 2 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Humanities Trivia
  6. »
  7. Vocabulary
  8. »
  9. Words Within Words

Author
gracious1
Time
2 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
400,596
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Very Easy
Avg Score
9 / 10
Plays
803
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 108 (10/10), Guest 73 (8/10), toddruby96 (7/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Which word with a CAT hiding in it means, in a nutshell, to lie? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Which of the words with a CAT lurking in it means an exaggerated representation for comic effect? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Which of these CAT words, appropriately, refers to utter shrieks, as from cats themselves? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. What word with CAT in the middle describes something that can be rubbed on the skin to relieve pain?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. What CAT word describes fish that live in fresh water, but migrate to sea water to breed?
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Can you figure out which CAT word refers to decorating medieval manuscripts with letters painted in red? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Which of these words with a CAT in the middle means random or haphazard, especially over a wide range?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Which of these CAT words refers to life in the country, or the kind of architecture you might see out there?
Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. What CAT word means to reflect brightly, or, by extension, to be lively and brilliant?
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Which of these CAT words is the branch of acoustics (the study of sounds) that specifically studies echoes? Hint





Most Recent Scores
Mar 23 2024 : Guest 108: 10/10
Mar 10 2024 : Guest 73: 8/10
Mar 06 2024 : toddruby96: 7/10
Mar 05 2024 : Guest 216: 8/10
Feb 24 2024 : Guest 184: 9/10
Feb 12 2024 : holetown: 10/10
Feb 06 2024 : jackslade: 10/10

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Which word with a CAT hiding in it means, in a nutshell, to lie?

Answer: prevaricate

To prevaricate is to be so deliberately ambiguous or vague as to mislead or withhold information; so it is a form of lying. The word 'prevarication" appeared in English in the late 14th century, to mean "divergence from a right course, transgression".

It came from Old French 'prevaricacion', that is, "breaking of God's laws, disobedience (to the Faith)". This came from the Latin 'praevaricationem', meaning "duplicity, collusion, or stepping out of line", from past-participle stem of 'praevaricari' meaning figuratively "to make a sham accusation, deviate" and literally "to walk crookedly". Broken down further, it's from 'prae' "before" and 'varicare' "to straddle", from 'varus' "bowlegged, knock-kneed". Though the noun appeared in the 14th century, the verb 'prevaricate', however, didn't appear until the 1580s.
2. Which of the words with a CAT lurking in it means an exaggerated representation for comic effect?

Answer: caricature

The word "caricature", as a grotesque or ludicrous drawing of a person by exaggerating his or her characteristics, entered English in the 18th century directly from the French 'caricature', though the French borrowed it from the Italian 'caricatura' to describe such drawings.

It literally means "an overloading" and is derived from Vulgar Latin 'carricare', meaning "to load a wagon or cart", from 'carrus', a two-wheeled cart from which we get the modern word "car". From the 1680s, the Italian form had been used in English until the French form, for some reason, overtook it in the 18th century.
3. Which of these CAT words, appropriately, refers to utter shrieks, as from cats themselves?

Answer: caterwauling

Caterwauling is very disagreeable howling or screeching, as from a cat in heat. Some time in the 14th century the verb emerged as 'caterwrawen', but the origin is disputed. Perhaps it was borrowed from Low German 'katerwaulen' ("to cry like a cat"). Or perhaps it formed in English itself from 'cater', which comes from Middle Dutch 'cater' ("tomcat") plus the Middle English 'waul' ("to yowl or howl"), which apparently came from Anglo-Saxon '*wrag' or '*wrah', meaning "angry".

The origin of the Anglo-Saxon is obscure, but it certainly seems to imitate the sound of an angry cat. (The asterisk means the word is hypothetical among etymologists.) The noun didn't appear until 1708.
4. What word with CAT in the middle describes something that can be rubbed on the skin to relieve pain?

Answer: embrocation

An embrocation is a liniment, that is, a drug, agent, or lotion for rubbing into the skin, particularly to relieve muscular stiffness or pain. The verb 'embrocate' entered the English language around the 1610s, from Medieval Latin 'embrocatus', the past participle of 'embrocare'. This in turn came from Late Latin 'embrocha', derived from Greek 'embrokhe' (meaning "lotion, fomentation"), from 'embrekhein', "to soak in, foment". The root 'brekhein' means "to water, wet, rain, send rain,", as 'brokhe' means "rain". This has an Indo-European root *mergh- meaning "to wet, sprinkle, rain", from which we get words like "submerge" and "emerge".

(The asterisk means the root is hypothetical.)
5. What CAT word describes fish that live in fresh water, but migrate to sea water to breed?

Answer: catadromous

The word comes from the Greek 'katá ' meaning "down, downwards, away" and the Greek 'dromos', from 'dremein' meaning "to run". Eels, for example, are catadromous, also spelled katadromous. They migrate down rivers to spawn in the sea. This is the opposite of anadramous fish like salmon, which migrate up rivers from the sea to spawn in fresh water (from 'ana-' which means "up").

Then there are those fish that migrate regularly between marine and fresh waters; these are diadromous. (The word 'diadrom' is an obsolete term for the completion of a course of a pendulum swing back and forth; likewise do the fish move back and forth between environments.)
6. Can you figure out which CAT word refers to decorating medieval manuscripts with letters painted in red?

Answer: rubrication

In the Middle Ages, rubricators were specialized scribes who added red headings or titles to manuscripts to distinguish one section from another (from which we get the term "rubrics", meaning "class, category, heading'). They would also sometimes make an intitial letter of a paragraph or section red. From these practices we get the phrase "red-letter day" (from the 14th century), referring to the marking of a saint's day in red letters in a calendar; now it means any memorably important, purposeful, or happy occasion.

It entered Middle English as 'rubrike' ("heading, title"), from from Old French rubrique, from Latin 'rubrīca' ("red chalk" or "red iron ochre") , from 'ruber', or rather the combining form 'rubr-', meaning "red".
7. Which of these words with a CAT in the middle means random or haphazard, especially over a wide range?

Answer: scattershot

The word "scattershot" is a relatively new one in the English lexicon, having appeared around 1940 to refer to a gun charge meant literally to scatter its pellets when fired, and apparently used figuratively to mean generalized and indiscriminate only since 1959.

The word "scatter", however, is much older, emerging in the middle 12th century as a northern English variant of the Middle English 'schateren', which most likely came from the Vikings. The word "shot" is even older, as it seems to come from Anglo-Saxon 'scot' or 'sceot', from a proto-Germanic source 'skutan' (and there is a similar Old Norse word, 'skutr', from the same root, and then of course there's the modern German 'Schuss').
8. Which of these CAT words refers to life in the country, or the kind of architecture you might see out there?

Answer: rustication

"Rustic" refers to rural or pastoral life and people, and usually implies lack of sophistication or refinement, and "rustication" can refer to the process of becoming this way. Rustication can also mean a style of masonry or brickwork that one would see in rustic settings, or deliberately done with a rough finish to make it look rustic.

In masonry in particular, the stonemason cuts or shapes blocks with deep-set joints and a rough-hewn face. Similarly, rusticating a pipe (for smoking, not for plumbing) means to remove material to give it a wood-grain finish and cover up flaws.

In the UK military, rustication happens when a person is posted or a unit is transferred from London or some other urban headquarters to elsehwere. When a university student is rusticated, he or she is temporarily expelled (as though sent into the countryside).
9. What CAT word means to reflect brightly, or, by extension, to be lively and brilliant?

Answer: coruscating

To "coruscate" is to emit flashes of light, to sparkle and glitter, like a diamond coruscating by candlelight. It can also be applied to music, brilliantly and vivaciously played, and exhibiting virtuosity, like a pianist playing Liszt, coruscating throughout the concert hall.

The word entered English in 1705 directrly from the Latin 'coruscatus', past participle of 'coruscāre', meaning "to flash, glitter, or vibrate". The Italian words 'scherzando' and 'scherzo', used in music to refer to playing lightly, as though jumping about, and a short piece played in such a manenr, are from the same root. You may also have seen the word "coruscation" referring to the reflection of lightning on the clouds or of moonlight on the ocean.
10. Which of these CAT words is the branch of acoustics (the study of sounds) that specifically studies echoes?

Answer: cataphonics

The root 'cata-' from the Greek 'kata' usually means "down, through", but it can also mean "indicating reversal, opposition, degeneration, etc.". The rest of the word comes from the Greek word for sound. Although in the 21st century the word "phonics" is usually associated with teaching people to read by matching letters with their phonetic values, it is also an obsolete term for acoustics (the scientific study of sound), and the field of cataphonics is often called catacoustics.

Very often if there's a "cata-" something in science, there is an "ana-" counterpart (e.g. catabolic vs. anabolic, cathode vs. anode, etc.) but not in the case of cataphonics!
Source: Author gracious1

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Sprint Rivals - Leg 3 - Wes:

The rivalry goes on - all answers in these quizzes had to contain the letters "C", "A" and "T" in that order (although not necessarily consecutively. Players got really creative).

  1. Cats Are Everywhere Average
  2. Find the Right Word Very Easy
  3. Let's Catch a Movie Easier
  4. There Might Be Cats Easier
  5. International Specialties Average
  6. C What I Did There? Average
  7. A Catacomb of CAT Words Very Easy
  8. Who Let the Cats Out? Average
  9. Cat Scan Average

3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us