Quadrivial Quandary

November 15, 2009
Stacey Mason

Rudi Seitz has created a place for logophiles to rejoice and share their love of words: Quadrivial Quandary. Each day the Word of the Day from Wordsmith, Wiktionary, Merriam-Webster, and dictionary.com , are listed. The challenge is to use all four words in a sentence that demonstrates their meaning.

Some of the participants come up with very interesting sentences! Such as:

The regimen required to retrain the atavistic Hulk Hogan as a sommelier was a continuing daymare for Hulk and instructors alike. (by Mouse)

This is, clearly, four times as difficult as the old quiz-show challenge that elicited Cerf’s famous answer:

Q: Use “meretricious” in a sentence.
A: We wish you a meretricious and a happy New Year.

I’d say the Quandary is more fun than a crossword, and more importantly you can stop sounding pretentious to all of your friends who are tired of you using unnecessarily big words; you’ll finally have a more healthy outlet!

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