The ultimate trivia question

[deejay]

So.. what DO you call a person who knows a lot of trivia?

No, seriously - apparently there's a name for them. From a phone conversation this morning:

Brett: 'hey, sorry I can't make the pub trivia tonight (insert lame excuse)

Deejay: 'bummer dude.. we'll miss you'

Brett: 'yeah, you will.. cos I fancy myself a bit of **phonestatic**ologist.

Deejay: 'well yeah, i know you fancy yerself.. but a what?'

Brett: 'it's a person who knows a lot of trivia. a spermologist'.

Deejay: *coughsplutterchoke* 'a... what was that first syllable again?'

Brett: 'yeah, you heard it right. I'm not kidding. Look it up.'

So I did. And I found out a spermologist is someone who collects... seeds.

Now, unless the word actually has a dual meaning and this particular definition just wasn't listed, I guess this means that my buddy is not a spermologist (at least I hope not, because I'm sure he's not a gardener and I don't want to think about other possible applications of 'spermology').

And, apparently, neither is he as much of a *trivia-expert*ologist as he thought he was.

But the question remains. What is the name for a trivia expert? Exactly what is it that he is not?

[digitalghost]

Spermologist is correct. One who collects seeds of knowledge.

[MonkeeSage]

A savant or sapient or sage (*grin*)?

Jordan

[Chndru]

I came across this question like a few years ago..glad you brought this up..i did a little digging on google and found this..

The OED2 records a single citation for "spermology," meaning babbling or trifling talk, from 1890. A "spermologist" can be a gossip, although this is not a standard use of the term.

From here - [pub122.ezboard.com...]

But dont have OED2 to verify its claims.

typewriter is the longest word that can be typed using only the keys in the top row of a keyboard..What an irony!

[grandpa]

From the Butlers site:

Q: what do you call someone who knows trivia

A: an 'anti-idiotarian'

[EBear]

Do not try "Define spermologist" in Google ;)

[deejay]

~lol~ you guys are a kick.

DG I just had a feeling you'd know this one. I had an inkling that might be the derivation.

EBear - never ever ever tell me not to do something. but you knew that.. right? ~l~ love that first result.

Well on the trivia front we did not disgrace ourselves. All but one other of the 15 teams had been playing for about six weeks already and had up to 8 members each, but we four girls managed to come in middle of the pack. Mind you, could have done with some boy-type input for the sporting round.. 2/10.. ~shudder~

And as for our absent spermologist... I have rechristened him. Brett shall henceforth be known as

<badaustrianaccent> B-arney The Sperminator </badaustrianaccent>