Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz about the ties that bind various sets of three words. For example, what do essay, excess, and decay have in common? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Ties That Bind Quiz”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined once again by our quiz guy, John Chaneski.
Hello, John.
Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.
Hey, John.
I told you guys one time, I think that I do a pub trivia at One Star Bar in New York with my friend Tony Hightower of Trivia NYC.
And one of our final rounds is always this name three round, we call it, which is sort of like a tri-bond.
We give you three things, and you try to tell me what those three things have in common.
Well, you guys like that so much, I thought we would do it again.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, no, you were good at it, I remember.
Here we go.
I’ll give you three things.
You tell me what they have in common.
Now, most of these are word-related, since this is a show about words.
The first one is essay, excess, decay.
Essay, excess, decay.
Now, it’s funny.
The way you said it, it almost doesn’t work.
Oh.
But the way I say it, S-A-X-S-D-K.
S-A-X-S-D-K.
Oh, they all sound like they’re made of letters.
Yes, exactly.
They’re pronounced as two letters.
You pronounce it decay, which is nice and proper.
It takes away the hook.
That’s right.
Got it.
Okay.
Chintz, jungle, jamboree.
Chintz, jungle.
If you get in the ballpark, I’ll give you this one.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, they’re all from South Asia.
Yes, they are all from Hindi.
Very good, Grant.
Nice work.
Dr. Street Pint.
Dr. Street Pint.
Well, they can all be abbreviated with two letters.
Yeah, be a little more specific and I’ll give it to you.
I don’t know how to be more specific.
First and last letters.
Yes.
Oh, there we go.
Nice.
Nice teamwork.
Way to go.
Baited, shrift, aspersions.
Short, baited breath.
Okay.
They’re like monogamous words?
Yes.
Yes.
They’re always used with one other particular word.
Yes.
Okay.
Gotcha.
Very good.
Very good.
Finally, Phil, Cool, Hard.
They’re going to all be names.
More specific, please.
Phil, like P-H-I-L?
No, it’s F-I-L-L, Phil.
Phil, Cool, and Hard.
It does have something to do with names.
Oh, it does?
Yeah.
Oh, well, if you add a Y, you’ve got a Philly, a Cooley, and Hardy.
I don’t know.
That’s what I was thinking.
That’s interesting.
No, it doesn’t work.
I’m thinking the same thing.
Cool.
I’ll give you a fourth one that I think will give it away.
Okay.
The word washing.
Tun, Filton, Coulton, Hartton.
Washington, right?
Oh, they’re all presidents.
Coolidge, Harding, Fillmore, and Washington.
That’s very good.
You got them all.
Cool.
Way to go, guys.
You did fantastic on that Name 3 quiz.
Holy moly.
These are tough.
I love them.
Yeah, but you, oh, man, you guys were great.
Just great.
Talk to you later, John.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
And if you want to talk about any aspect of language whatsoever, this is the place to do it.
So call us 877-929-9673 or send your observations an email to words@waywordradio.org.
