Wednesday 5 July 2017

A Random Quick Quiz

Hi all! It's been quite a while since I posted any quizzes on here, as a result of my working on quizzes for live hosting, so here's 10 questions on the origin of words. The source for all 10 is the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins (2010) by Julia Cresswell.


1. The word “nausea” originally referred to one specific kind of sickness. Which kind?

2. The word “jail” shares its origin with that of a natural land feature, as a result of one of its letters softening over time. What is the land feature?

3. The word “daisy” is a contraction of what two words, which refer to the physical look of the flower?

4. The word “chivalry” ultimately comes from the Latin “caballus”. To which animal does this word refer?

5. What famous ruler of antiquity gives their name to the origin of the much more recent Russian term, Tsar?

6. This one is a bit of a quiz classic: what 4 word phrase is today usually contracted to the single word, “goodbye”?

7. The word “tooth” derives from an Old English word with a shared Latin root, a word that has ultimately given its name to a kind of weapon, as well as a relevant profession. What is the weapon?

8. The words “clothes horse” and “easel” both use the analogy of an object being as though a beast of burden for a human’s task. The latter comes from a Dutch word for which animal?

9. The word “nickname” is a case of a word being incorrectly spelled, and both the spelling and meaning changing over time. The original meaning was “additional name”. The original word was hyphenated – what was it?

10. The word “ranch” come from a Spanish word referring to a group of people sharing in what activity?

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