Yesterday we posted a short quiz to give you an example of some of the words you might encounter on a test such as the SAT or GRE, where part of the English language test section requires you to identify and define difficult or uncommon words. To figure out the answers to those questions, we encouraged you to use your knowledge of etymology (the history of words and the original root words that now make up our English vocabulary) to break down the words and puzzle out their meanings. Here are the correct answers: 1.c; 2.b; 3.a; 4.d

Calcite (the main component of limestone), hematite (iron ore), and muscovite (also known as mica) are all types of minerals. The word plebiscite comes from the Latin words plebs (“the general public”) and scitum (“decree”), and means a question or issue that is put before the public for a deciding vote, often in the form of a ballot. A related word is plebeian (common, ordinary, “just folks”).

The three architectural terms are ogee (an arch whose sides are curved first outward then inward), cornice (a decorative molding or shelf at the top of a wall), and portico (a small roofed porch at the entrance of a building). While minatory might sound like another architectural term, minaret (the tall narrow tower atop a mosque), it’s actually an adjective meaning menacing or threatening. Minaret comes from the Arabic term for candlestick, manar, but the root word of minatory is the Latin minari (“to threaten”).

In the third question we deliberately tried to make the solution harder to find – we tried to obfuscate, in other words, by providing alternate answers that seemed like reasonable alternatives at first glance. In fact, you might have misconstrued (interpreted incorrectly) the meanings of the root words of these three other options, which all seem similar to the word confusion, which is something that results from obfuscation. We attempted to confuse you by picking the words confabulate (to chat) and confute (to disprove) because they start with the same letters. However, the correct answer is obfuscate, whose root is the Latin word fuscare, “to make dark.”

If you answered all of the questions correctly, you’re probably feeling rather jovial: happy and full of good humor. This word gets its meaning from the Roman god Jove, after whom the planet Jupiter was named, and the term was applied to people born under that astrological sign, who were thought to be of generally merry dispositions. Be sure to reward yourself with a lovely bouquet of jonquils (daffodils) because your mastery of word roots is no jejune (unsophisticated, lacking in meaning) matter. And remember to spend a judicious (using good judgment or common sense) amount of time in the future on your explorations of the interesting and intricate origins of the words you’re studying.