Greek

Question 1

“Maiden” is a translation of the name of what temple, whose name was also once given to the room in a home in ancient Greece where unmarried, virginal daughters lived?

Answer 1

Parthenon

Question 2

The condition known as nyctophobia indicates an irrational fear of what?

Answer 2

Dark/Night

Question 3

Four Greek letters are written as two-letter words in English. Three of them appear consecutively in the Greek alphabet; which one does not?

Answer 3

The four letters are mu, nu, xi, and pi. It might seem logical that mu, nu, and pi would be the three consecutive ones but nope! Xi comes right after nu. Pi is the odd one out.

Question 4

The autological term for what figure of speech and rhetorical device is derived from the Greek words for “sharp” and “dull”?

Answer 4

Oxymoron

Question 5

This word for disturbance of regular flow or rhythm as in jazz is from the Greek for “cutting short.”

Answer 5

Syncopation

Question 6

This word for an artwork made of 3 panels comes from the Greek for “three tablets.”

Answer 6

Triptych

Question 7

From the Greek for “cave”, it’s an old term for a cave dweller or caveman.

Answer 7

Troglodyte

Question 8

From Greek, this male first name means “messiah-bearer.”

Answer 8

Christopher

Question 9

This the term given to the scent produced by rain falling on dry soil. It is a combination of the Greek terms for (1) stone and (2) the fluid that flows in the veins of gods in Greek mythology.

Answer 9

Petrichor

Question 10

A “Lett” is a person from Latvia. A “Michigander” is a person from Michigan. And an “Angeleno” is a person from Los Angeles. Name the term for a word like Lett, Michigander, and Angeleno or any other name for a person of a particular geographic or national origin. Appropriately enough, the word is a compound of Greek roots meaning in essence “name of the people”.

Answer 10

Demonym

Question 11

If you are experiencing alektorophobia, what are you afraid of?

Answer 11

Chickens / Roosters

Question 12

Greek for “to cleanse” gives us this word that describes an experience that relieves pent-up emotions.

Answer 12

Cathartic

Question 13

This condition was thought to arise from an excess of black bile, the origin of its name.

Answer 13

Melancholia

Question 14

From the Greek for “moral character”, this discipline is concerned with right and wrong.

Answer 14

Ethics

Question 15

From the name of the Greek goddess of vengeance, it’s a longstanding rival or enemy.

Answer 15

Nemesis

Question 16

What Greek word for a theatrical mask did Carl Jung use for the social identity an individual presents to the world?

Answer 16

Persona

Question 17

The lower case Greek letter α is represented in English as “alpha”, β is “beta”, and π is “pi”. What name in English represents the Greek letter θ?

Answer 17

Theta

Question 18

The name for the supercontinent Pangaea comes from the Ancient Greek for “all” (pan) and “Mother Earth” (Gaia). Likewise, what is the name of the superocean that surrounded Pangaea, from the Ancient Greek for “all” and “sea”?

Answer 18

Panthalassa

Question 19

Coming from the Greek for “repeating what has been said”, what “-ology” is defined in grammar as the use of redundant words, as seen in the examples “free gift”, “close proximity”, or “mental telepathy”?

Answer 19

Tautology

Question 20

Identify the system for visual communication whose name comes from the Greek words for “signal” and “bearer”, and fittingly so.

Answer 20

Semaphore

Question 21

James Joyce’s Ulysses is broken into three parts: “Telemachia”, “Odyssey”, and what, a 6-letter Greek word? Meaning “return home”, this word describes a common theme in Ancient Greek literature in which an epic hero must return home, prominently seen in Homer’s Odyssey.

Answer 21

Nostos

Question 22

What term, derived from the Greek for “solid” and “impression”, originally referred to a method of duplicate printing, but was given its current (and often pejorative) meaning in social psychology by Walter Lippmann’s 1922 book Public Opinion?

Answer 22

Stereotype

Question 23

The invertebrates of the taxonomic phylum Platyhelminthes are worms so named for their shape. Helminth is the Greek word for “worm” and platy- is the Greek for what?

Answer 23

Flat

Question 24

In the word “hyperbole”, “hyper” comes from the Greek word for “above” or “beyond”. What does “-bole” mean? It derives from the Greek verb βάλλω (bállō), which is also the primary root of (for example) “ballistic.”

Answer 24

Throw

Question 25

Which letter of the Greek alphabet was used in antiquity as a symbol for death, presumably because it was the first letter of the Greek word for “death” and also perhaps because it roughly resembles a human skull. Some engravings would avoid the letter’s use by showing the letters delta and epsilon in its place.

Answer 25

Theta

Question 26

A literary comedy by Aristophanes, produced in 405 BCE, depicts Dionysus descending into Hades to bring Euripides back to improve the quality of Athenian tragedy, but instead he brings back Aeschylus. This play was titled Batrachoi, which translates into English as what animals?

Answer 26

Frogs