2021 July

Question 1

Permalance

Answer 1

A portmanteau of the terms “permanent” and “freelance”

Question 2

Noisome

Answer 2

Unpleasant

Question 3

Epigrammatic

Answer 3

Concise

Question 4

Bachata

Answer 4

A style of romantic music originating in the Dominican Republic

Question 5

Emetophobic

Answer 5

Extreme fear of vomiting

Question 6

Dervish

Answer 6

A member of a Sufi denomination who has taken vows of poverty and austerity

Question 7

Jamais vu

Answer 7

A phenomenon in which one experiences a situation that one recognizes, but it seems novel

Question 8

Peroration

Answer 8

The concluding part of a discourse

Question 9

Perorate

Answer 9

To speak at great length, often in a grandiloquent manner

Declaim

Question 10

Rebar

Answer 10

A steel reinforcing rod in concrete

Question 11

Passim

Answer 11

To be found at various places throughout the text

Question 12

Hardpan

Answer 12

A hardened impervious layer, typically of clay, occurring in or below the soil and impairing drainage and plant growth

Question 13

Precator

Answer 13

Latin

I beseech
I beg
I pray
I wish

Question 14

Leitmotif

Answer 14

A recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea or situation

Example

There are two leitmotifs in this score marking the heroine and her Fairy Godmother

Question 15

Vignette

Answer 15

A brief evocative description, account or episode
(“A classic vignette of embassy life”)
A small illustration or portrait paragraph which fades into its background without a definite border

Question 16

Palimpsest

Answer 16

Something reused or altered but still hearing visible traces of its earlier form

(e.g., Sutton Place is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners)

Question 17

Farce

Answer 17

Slapstick comedy

Absurdity

Question 18

Eustasy

Answer 18

A change of sea levels around the world

Question 19

Phantonym

Answer 19

A word that seems as though it contains one meaning, but means something completely different

Question 20

Esquivalience

Answer 20

Deliberate shirking of one’s official duties

Question 21

Enervate

Answer 21

To weaken

Exhaust

Question 22

Zephyr

Answer 22

A soft, gentle breeze

Question 23

Phlegmatic

Answer 23

Self-controlled

Question 24

Ruritanian

Answer 24

Of, or relating to, an imagined European kingdom characterized by provincialism, nationalism, and political intrigue

Having the characteristics of an imaginary place of high romance

Question 25

Succour

Answer 25

Assistance and support in times of hardship and distress

Question 26

Caducous

Answer 26

(Of an organ or part) easily detached and shed at an early stage

Question 27

Retune

Answer 27

To tune again or differently

Question 28

Pulchritudinous

Answer 28

Beautiful

Question 29

Bacchanal

Answer 29

Noun

An occasion of wild and drunken revelry

Question 30

Gestalt

Answer 30

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts