useless trivia: What Word Means: Heavy, Stiff, Unbending?

Questions

[pot luck] what colour dye is obtained from woad?

[pot luck] which of the following english words did not come from the chinese language ketchup, kowtow or decoy?

[pot luck] until the 1960's which monks spent their lives in perpetual silence?

[pot luck] the root of which garden weed is sometimes used as a coffee substitute?

[pot luck] what are cumulus, cirrus and stratos?