Free Rice

Word buffs, try this cute time-wasting activity! A friend of mine sent me the link to a multiple-choice style vocabulary test, where the sponsoring organization will give ten grains of rice to the third world for every word you get right. It's here, but watch out, it's addictive. Keep an eye on the "vocabulary level" because that's the fun challenge for yourself. I'm having a hard time getting above 50, and it's fun to try. But mostly it's just amazing how many wacky words there are out there.

For fun, I made a list of the ones I got wrong and then started slowly doing some research in the OED on them. I bet the free rice people won't mind if I share the ones I looked at so far:

cerumen = earwax (from Latin cera, wax)--also the French word for wax--anatomical

isinglass = mica (or a firm whitish translucent gelatin gotten from the air-bladders of fish, especially sturgeon, and used for making jellies, clarifying liquors, or making glue) a name for mica because of its resemblance to the fish gelatin. Apparently a corruption of the obsolete Dutch word, huisenblas.
commove = disturb

recrudesce = happen again (more literally, of wounds, to become raw again, from Latin crudescere, to beome raw)--a wound breaking out again, and extensionally, and idea recurring, connotation of pathology

lam = thrash (etymologically related to "lame" --to cause someone to be lame--but usually used in reference to beating)--colloquial/vulgar/slang

chigoe = sand flea: A small species of flea (Pulex or Sarcopsylla penetrans), found in the West Indies and South America. The female burrows beneath the skin of the human feet (and sometimes of the hands) and becomes greatly distended with eggs, which are sometimes hatched there, causing itching, and painful sores. (Word is some corruption of a West Indian name, possible related to the Spanish chigo--small) Also called chigger or jigger by English-speakers.