Historical Allusions

Question 1

barbarian, rough leader; King of Huns from 433-453 and the most successful of the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire

Answer 1

Attila

Question 2

destructively or frenetically violent, mental, or emotionally upset; a warrior clothed in bear skin who worked himself into a frenzy before battle

Answer 2

Berserk

Question 3

undergarments for dance or active wear; underwear formally worn by females that was composed of loose trousers gathered at the ankles; invented by Amelia Jenkins Bloomer, an American social reformer

Answer 3

Bloomer

Question 4

to censor, expurgate prudishly, to modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing content; after Thomas Bowdler, who expurgated Shakespeare

Answer 4

Bowdlerize

Question 5

to act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion, the act or an instance of ____ after a former British soldier who refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants

Answer 5

Boycott (Charles C. Boycott)

Question 6

an overhanging protection or shelter, to cover or hover above; Middle English word canape taken from Latin Canapeum or Conopeum, meaning net curtains

Answer 6

Canopy

Question 7

a man who is amorously and gallantly attentive to women; a promiscuous man; Giovanni Jacopo Casanova De Seingalt, an Italian adventurer who established a legendary reputation as a lover

Answer 7

Casanova

Question 8

one who has a militant devotion to and glorification of one’s country, fanatical patriotism, prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind; after Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary French soldier devoted to Napoleon

Answer 8

Chauvinist

Question 9

a machine for hoisting and moving heavy objects, consisting of a movable boom equipped with cables and pulleys and connected to the base of an upright stationary beam, a tall framework over a drilled hole, esp. an oil well, used to support boring equipment; named after a London hangman

Answer 9

Derrick

Question 10

any riotous occasion; taken from the Donnybrook Fair, held in Dublin County, Ireland until 1855, which was famous for rioting and dissipation

Answer 10

Donnybrook

Question 11

a style of casual work pants; from a coarse cotton fabric of East Indian origin; from the Hindu word dungri

Answer 11

Dungaree

Question 12

a place of reputed wealth; from the legendary city in South America, sought by early Spanish explorers

Answer 12

El Dolorado

Question 13

to make something banal or trite by frequent use, a horse for ordinary riding or driving, a horse kept for hire, let out, employed, or done for hire; from Hackney, the most common breed of heavy harness horses in the US

Answer 13

Hackney

Question 14

one who believes that a person can make it on his own merits; from American writer of inspirational adventure books

Answer 14

Horatio Alger

Question 15

using or marked by the use of few words, brief; Lakonikos, from the reputation of Spartans for brevity of speech

Answer 15

Laconic

Question 16

a humorous or nonsense verse of five lines; from a county in the Republic of Ireland where the form is said to have originated

Answer 16

Limerick

Question 17

of or relating to Machiavelli or Machiavellianism, characterized by expedience, deceit, and cunning; after Niccolo Machiavelli, a philosopher known for his treaties and political expediency; wrote “The Prince”

Answer 17

Machiavellian

Question 18

a long distance race; source of the Victory of the Greeks over Persians in 490 BC

Answer 18

Marathon

Question 19

modern witch hunt, the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversions with insufficient regard to evidence, the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods, in order to suppress opposition; after Joseph McCarthy, an American politician who as a US Senator from WWI publicly accused many citizens of subversion

Answer 19

McCarthyism

Question 20

to wander aimlessly; originating from Meander, a river in Turkey noted for its winding course

Answer 20

Meander

Question 21

to induce the state of being hypnotized; FA Mesmer, a Austrian physician who used hypnotism and developed a theory called “animal magnetism”

Answer 21

Mesmerize

Question 22

fortune teller; French physician and astrologer who wrote a book of rhymed prophecies

Answer 22

Nostradamus

Question 23

bitterly ironical, sarcastic, sneering; from a Sardinian plant said to bring on fits of laughter

Answer 23

Sardonic

Question 24

frugal and bare, simple, disciplined and stern and brave; having to do with Sparta, an important City in Greece; they were known for simplicity of life, severity, courage, and brevity of speech

Answer 24

Spartan

Question 25

hinder or obstruct by evasive, delaying tactics; in cricket: trying to go completely defensive, blocking every ball without trying to score; relating to Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate General, from the remark during the Battle of Bull Run: “Look as Jackson’s men; they stand like a stone wall.”

Answer 25

Stonewall

Question 26

satirical; from JS’s famous satire on politics in GT

Answer 26

Swiftian

Question 27

luxurious, voluptuous, a person who cares very much for luxury and pleasure; an inhabitant of Sybars, a town founded by the Greeks in ancient Italy, which was known for its luxury

Answer 27

Sybaritic

Question 28

having to do with the theater or acting; relating to Thespians, so called from Thespis, a Attic poet of the 6th century BC, reputed to be the father of the Greek tragedy

Answer 28

Thespian

Question 29

govt of people of the US; derived from the USA– a businessman with initials on shipping boxes in the 1880s

Answer 29

Uncle Sam

Question 30

an imaginary and perfect society; British 1610, source: Tomas More’s novel

Answer 30

Utopia

Question 31

style of music; loud, dramatic, radical; having to do with Wagner, his music, or his musical styles or theories

Answer 31

Wagnerian

Question 32

a decisive or final defeat or setback; Belgian 1816, source of Napoleon’s last defeat

Answer 32

Waterloo