h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I got 9 right.

I haven't checked yet. I guessed

1b, 2c, 3b, 4d, 5d, 6c, 7a, 8a, 9d, 10c, 11b, 12b, 13d, 14c, 15a, 16c, 17c, 18d, 19c, 20a


and I think that may be three or four correct ones.


Bel

I make that 7, which is not a bad score by any means.

Ha ha! I got eleven! And I know what pasella really means. It means for nothing ... gratuitous ... a giveaway.

Oh. Like lagniappe in New Orleans?

It looks like that, Dmitri! Over here it is actually an adverb rather than a noun, indicating the act of getting something for no money. Such as, "I got this warthog skull pasella, it was just lying beside of the road so I took it as soon as I spotted it."

Oh and we have a weekly TV show called 'Pasella'. It's about ... well, 'lifestyle trends' ... two words I'm not exactly fond of, and I never watched the show back when I still had TV.

Lifestyle trends...ugh...

It's an English word now

This may not be a good thing - we tend to mangle imported words into some new meaning, then spit it out again.

But it seems to me that making this an English word meaning 'a South African tip' narrows its meaning down to the point where there are very few occasions where an English person would use it ... while over here we can use it in a great many ways.

I just chose one sense - I had to shorten it a bit for the quiz. The full OED definition is:

***
pasella

S. Afr.

(= bonsella) n.

A gratuity, bonus, or reward; a gift, esp. one given in acknowledgement or anticipation of service, or requested as a gesture of goodwill; a bribe.
***

I had a few synonyms to choose from, but as 'gratuity' was first listed, I used 'tip'.

Oh I see, thanks for clearing that up!

Aha, it includes the meaning of 'baksheesh'?

Well in English it seems now to have that meaning. Over here it doesn't. It really means something for *nothing* ... no payment, no service, no favour, nothing.

A good word.