Cryptic Quiz

Questions

1. Supercilium often raised?
2. Half-baked?
3. Extended intranet?
4. Bass red triangle was the first ever registered (UK)?
5. Eponymous 1947 weapon developer?
6. Mythological Norse 'hall of the slain'?
7. Each vowel, correct order, moderate consumer?
8. Biblical hairshirt worn with ashes?
9. Laughing feliform?
10. Sound, hearing, and non-electric musical instruments from the Greeks?
11. French knight, thank heaven?
12. Prepared plural money slang?
13. Dripping with Yiddish sentimentality?
14. Cubic substitute ZrO2?
15. Physical rate of change of v over time?
16. South Asia Muslim ruler's title, variously distorted?
17. Lord of the Flies is a devil?
18. Clean graph curve?
19. Agent of guaranteed investment?
20. Divinely amusing Italian poet?

1. Supercilium often raised?

   Eyebrow (from Latin super, above, and cilium, eyelid - from which we also have the word supercilious, meaning haughty or arrogant, referring to a person's raised eyebrows tending to accompany such attitudes)
2. Half-baked?

   Waffle (A waffle is a baked dough/batter cake; waffle refers separately to poorly prepared/delivered communications; half-baked refers to underprepared ideas or propositions)
3. Extended intranet?

   Extranet (enabling connections from/to a closed intranet with outside online users/services, but still controlled and not open from/to the internet - incidentally an intranet is a closed secure online network for staff/users of a particular institution/corporation, etc.)
4. Bass red triangle was the first ever registered (UK)?

   Trademark (in 1875, by the Bass Brewery company of England - the first US trademark resgistered is said to be Samson Rope's Samson and lion wrestling image)
5. Eponymous 1947 weapon developer?

   Kalashnikov (Russian Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov, developer of the AK-47 assault rifle - abbreviated from Avtomat Kalashnikova, and 1947, the year that he developed it)
6. Mythological Norse 'hall of the slain'?

   Valhalla (the highly symbolic legendary palace where dead warriors feast with the god Odin for ever)
7. Each vowel, correct order, moderate consumer?

   Abstemious (or also correctly, Abstentious, meaning restrained or abstaining - see the AEIOU word puzzle and answers on the puzzles and games page)
8. Biblical hairshirt worn with ashes?

   Sackcloth (the alternative Latin term cilice refers to a shirt made from course goat's hair, or similar, to produce discomfort for the wearer, typically for religious repentance atonement - cilice incidentally derives from the ancient Roman region Cilicia, now SE Turkey, where such garments were worn)
9. Laughing feliform?

   Hyena (of the Feliformia suborder, of the Carnivora order, of mammals)
10. Sound, hearing, and non-electric musical instruments from the Greeks?

    Acoustic (from Greek acoustikos, and akouein, to hear)
11. French knight, thank heaven?

    Chevalier (French surname and title derived from horsemen - Belgian Maurice Chevalier famously recorded the 1957 song Thank Heaven for Little Girls - we might wonder if such a song-theme would be devised in modern times..)
12. Prepared plural money slang?

    Readies (more money slang and history)
13. Dripping with Yiddish sentimentality?

    Schmaltz (commonly now referring metaphorically to excessive sentimentality in films, music, etc., the Jewish/Yiddish term originally refers to dripping or lard, from the German schmalz)
14. Cubic substitute ZrO2?

    Zirconia (fully Zirconium Dioxide - Cubic Zirconia is the cubic crystalline form, CZ, used as synthetic diamond jewellery)
15. Physical rate of change of v over time?

    Acceleration (v is velocity)
16. South Asia Muslim ruler's title, variously distorted?

    Nawab (or Nawaab, or Nobab - notably in India and Pakistan - with numerous related terms for people of actual or apparent or hopeful power and status, such as Nabob, and Naybob, an English ironic reference to returning colonial ex-pats having pretensions above their actual status; also Naib, an earlier Arabic local ruler title but now referring to certain elected parliament officials in Arab-speaking regions.)
17. Lord of the Flies is a devil?

    Beelzebub (pronounced 'bee-elzeebub', the word, referring to Satan, is from Hebrew, Ba'-al-ze'-bub, meaning 'lord of the flies', a Philistine god mentioned in the Holy Bible's second book of Kings, 1:2)
18. Clean graph curve?

    Bathtub (a long U-shape typically occurring in engineering failures over time - early development teething problems reducing to less common random failures, peaking subsequently again due to wear-out)
19. Agent of guaranteed investment?

    Bond (see bond definitions/origins - the agent of course is James)
20. Divinely amusing Italian poet?

    Dante (Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321, author of epic poem The Divine Comedy)