FUNDAMENTALS
Thou art not so long by the head as honorific abilitudi nita ti bus” from Love’s Labour Lost by Shakespeare. The bard of Avon is not known for using extremely long words in his plays. This is one of the rare instances. This dialogue was spoken by comic Costard after an absurdly pretentious dialogue between the pedantic schoolmaster Holofernes and his friend Sir Nathaniel. ‘Hon or ificabilitu di nita ti bus’ is a kind of word that is loved by logophiles for its rarity and uniqueness. It is the longest word in the English language featuring only alternating consonants and vowels. Incidentally, it means “the state of being able to achieve honours.”
This quiz theme is unique words and contributed by Partha Sarkar from Kolkata and he dedicates it to all logophiles.
LOGOPHILES
1. If tmesis is the only term in the English language to begin with ‘tm’, which is the only verb in regular English to end with ‘mt’? 2. This verb is not used in the present or past or future tense. It is used only in the infinitive and imperative. Identify this 6-letter word. 3. We know that the most commonly used letter in English is ‘e’. But do you know the longest word that contains no ‘e’? 4. If ‘I ape you’ is the shortest sentence with all the vowels, which is the shortest word that contains all 5 main vowels? 5. ‘Malayalam’ is the longest palindromic language name. Which is the longest palindromic word in the Oxford English dictionary? (Clue: This word was invented by James Joyce and used in his book Ulysses.) 6. If ‘Aegilops’ is the longest word whose letters are arranged alphabetically, which is the longest word where letters are in reverse alphabetical order? 7. Which is the only country that is also used as a verb? (Clue: an Asian country.) 8. There are only two words in the English language that begin and end with the letters ‘und’. Identify them. 9. When read backward, a word produces a different word — that is called ‘semordnilap’ e.g. Evillive, nip-pin etc. So, which word in the English language is considered the longest semordnilap? 10. Forty is the only number with its letters in alphabetical order. Guess the sole number whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order.
ANYTHING GOES
1. Amuktamalyada is an epic poem in Telugu that describes the story of the wedding of Lord Vishnu with Andal. Name the king to whom the work is attributed. (Gayathri Jeevan, Thiruvanathapuram) 2. Eunice Gayson appeared in several movies including Out of
the Clouds and Zarak between 1948 and 1963. However, it is her role in her last two movies that she is best remembered for. What am I talking about? (Tanmayee, Secunderabad) 3. The mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup is a Euroasian wolf named Zabivaka. What does Zabivaka literally mean? (P.S. Nivritee Sreelekha, Secunderabad) 4. In Japan, if you’re partaking in ‘Inemuri’ at your workplace, your colleagues would actually be impressed, unlike in India where you’d definitely be looked down upon. What is it? (Dee Surendranath, Hyderabad) 5. In the FIFA World Cup in Russia, France’s 19year-old Kylian Mbappe scored two goals in the match against Argentina in the round of 16 on 30 June 2018. When was the last time a teenager scored two goals in a FIFA World Cup football final? (B.K. Harinath, Mysuru) 6. The runway of this unique airport includes the part of a main street of the city. Vehicles are literally stopped every time a plane takes off or lands. Name the airport and the city. (Muhammed Arif, Mumbai) 7. Iceland, El Salvador and Philippines are the three leading nations in this energy source drawing more than 25 per cent of their electricity requirements from this source. What energy source are we talking about? (Jevetha Vijayadasan, Vellore) 8. Fill in the blanks in the quote attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne: “..... has produced for the American people in ….. an epic worthy of Homer or Dante.”