Q 01/05

Which continent's name comes from the Greek for 'opposite the Bear', a northern constellation?

A) South America

B) Antarctica

C) Australia

D) Eurasia

Answer · why

B) Antarctica

Antarctica is named from 'antarktikos', opposite the Arctic, the land beneath the Great Bear. A southern continent was imagined in antiquity, long bef...

Q 02/05

Which Latin word for 'left', the opposite of 'dexter', now describes anything menacing in English?

A) Nefarious

B) Ominous

C) Morbid

D) Sinister

Answer · why

D) Sinister

Sinister was plain Latin for the left-hand side. Roman augurs took up a Greek habit of reading omens seen on the left as unlucky, and the word slid fr...

Q 03/05

Which word for a lowest point, the opposite of 'zenith', comes from the Arabic for 'opposite'?

A) Nadir

B) Azimuth

C) Abyss

D) Trough

Answer · why

A) Nadir

Nadir comes from the Arabic 'nazir as-samt', the opposite direction. Astronomers used it for the point of the sky directly beneath an observer before ...

Q 04/05

Which word for an imagined nightmare society was built as the opposite of Thomas More's 'utopia'?

A) Purgatory

B) Anarchy

C) Dystopia

D) Inferno

Answer · why

C) Dystopia

Dystopia swaps the start of 'utopia' for the Greek 'dys-', meaning bad. John Stuart Mill called a government 'dys-topians' in 1868, long before the no...

Q 05/05

Which country sits opposite Spain on the globe, so that the two are each other's antipodes?

A) Australia

B) New Zealand

C) South Africa

D) Indonesia

Answer · why

B) New Zealand

New Zealand's North Island lies almost exactly opposite Spain. Such land-to-land matches are rare: most places, Australia included, have open ocean on...