The Word Page

Susan's Word Quiz

1. Salacious

a) Having to do with salad;
b)The geological era preceding the Cretaceous Era.
c) Having to do with salivating;
d) lewd

2. Oxymoron

a) Someone made stupid by breathing pure oxygen for too long.
b) A dimwit.
c) A very shy person.
d) A student an Oxford University
e) A figure of speech.

3. Locution

a) That's "electrocution", Susan, you dumb bunny, you misspelled it! It means to zap with electricity until you are dead!
b) No, it is a certain form of expression, such as an idiom or oxymoron
c) It is neither of the above; it was where the Lilliputians lived in the novel, Gulliver's Travels;

4. Idiom

a) A dome constructed by idiots. Don't stand under it!
b) A peculiar person, such as a web page creator.
c) A distinctive style, such as "the idiom of Wagner".
d) A phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by its literal words, such as "to kick the bucket".

5. Vitiated

a) Gads, Susan, where do you get these words from? I never see words like this in the newspaper!
b) You are right! Newspapers are written at about the eighth-grade reading level!
c) Aw, this one is simple. It means to have become drunk, its from the Latin, vinum, for wine.
d) To have spoiled or ruined; a word scholars use to maintain an air of erudition, when they could have used a more common term, and have been easily understood by everybody.

Answers: 1) d; 2) e; 3) b; 4) both c and d are correct. 5) d;  If you really want to understand these words, look them up in the dictionary. I have not attempted here to give complete definitions, but my answers are correct, for you quibblers.

Related page on Susan's Place

The Punctuation Page

Thought for the day

When your companion bird sees you reading the newspaper, does he wonder why you're just sitting there, staring at the carpeting?