Final Jeopardy: Word History (12-16-11)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/16/2011) in the category “Word History” was:
A Roman legal term for a debtor sentenced to servitude is the origin for this term for a slave to a vice.
Beth Watkins returned today after winning $37,200 yesterday to take on these opponents: Leslie Hamilton from Kentucky and Jason Keller from New Jersey.
Jason got the Jeopardy round Daily Double in “John, Paul, George,” not a category about the Beatles. In the lead with $6,000, he only felt like betting $1,000 and he got it RIGHT.
Jason finished the round with $7,000. Leslie was second with $4,600 and Beth had $3,800 going into Double Jeopardy.
After missing the $800 clue in “Lake City,” Jason got the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in the same category. In the lead with $7,400, Jason decided to bet $2,000. He was RIGHT on this and the rest of the category too, ending up with $13,000.
“Jinja, Uganda.” show
Leslie got the second Daily Double in “A Stony Category.” Despite Alex’s encouragement to make it a true Daily Double and take the lead away from Jason, Leslie chose to bet $2,000 of her $9,400. Too bad because she nailed it.
Geologists use these 2 Greek-derived terms to describe the ‘New Stone Age’ & the “Old Stone Age” time periods. show
Jason finished in the lead with $20,200. Leslie was second with $13,800 and Beth was last with $3,000.
Only ONE contestant had the correct Final Jeopardy answer:
WHAT IS AN ADDICT?
“addiction – (Roman law) a formal award by a magistrate of a thing or person to another person (as the award of a debtor to his creditor); a surrender to a master; ‘under Roman law addiction was the justification for slavery'” (The Free Dictionary)
We tried to track down that quote (which is also given as an ‘Example’ on many other sites) in Google Books, but the closest we could find was this sentence in “Dreams” by Derrick Jensen: “In Roman Law, an addiction was ‘A formal giving over or delivery by sentence of court. Hence, a surrender, or dedication, of any one to a master.'” It’s a quote, and it’s also in his book Endgame, Vol 1 , and that led us to the The Century Dictionary (1906). Sheesh! No wonder Trebek didn’t care to elaborate. Although we usually don’t say whether we got it right or not — in this case, we did but only because we figured what else could it be?
Beth didn’t even want to take a guess even though she bet her whole $3,000. She ended up with zero.
Leslie wrote down “What is a dependent?” She bet $7,242 and finished with $6,558.
Congrats to new champion, Jason Keller. He had the right answer, added $8,000 to his score, and his winning total was $28,200.
