quiz
English edit
Etymology edit
Attested since the 1780s, of unknown origin.
- The Century Dictionary suggests it was originally applied to a popular toy, from a dialectal variant of whiz.
- The Random House Dictionary suggests the original sense was "odd person" (circa 1780).
- Others suggest the meaning "hoax" was original (1796), shifting to the meaning "interrogate" (1847) under the influence of question and inquisitive.
- Some say without evidence it was invented by a late-18th-century Dublin theatre proprietor who bet he could add a new nonsense word to the English language; he had the word painted on walls all over the city, and the morning after, everyone was talking about it (The Pre-Victorian Drama in Dublin ).
- Others suggest it was originally quies (1847), Latin qui es? (who are you?), traditionally the first question in oral Latin exams. They suggest that it was first used as a noun from 1867, and the spelling quiz first recorded in 1886, but this is demonstrably incorrect.
- A further derivation, assuming that the original sense is "good, ingenuous, harmless man, overly conventional, pedantic, rule-bound man, square; nerd; oddball, eccentric",[1] is based on a column from 1785 which claims that the origin is a jocular translation of the Horace quotation vir bonus est quis as "the good man is a quiz" at Cambridge.[2]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz (plural quizzes)
- (dated) An odd, puzzling or absurd person or thing.
- 1796, Fanny Burney, Camilla: or, A picture of youth, by the author of Evelina, page 99:
- I've always heard he was a quiz, says another, or a quoz, or some such word ; but I did not know he was such a book-worm.
- 1833, Maria Edgeworth, Moral Tales, volume 1, page 204:
- I tell you I am going to the music shop. I trust to your honour. Lord Rawson, I know, will call me a fool for trusting to the honour of a quiz.
- 1803, Jane Austen, chapter 7, in Northanger Abbey[1], published 1816:
- Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch.
- 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis[2]:
- “I’m afraid you’re a sad quiz,” said Mrs. Bungay. ¶ “Quiz! never made a joke in my—hullo! who’s here? How d’ye do, Pendennis?
- (dated) One who questions or interrogates; a prying person.
- A competition in the answering of questions.
- We came second in the pub quiz.
- 1997, Jennifer Coates, “The construction of a collaborative floor in women’s friendly talk”, in Talmy Givón, editor, Conversation: Cognitive, Communicative and Social Perspectives, page 72:
- Once all six friends are clear that the topic of Janet's story is a pub quiz, we launch into talk around this topic, combining factual information about quizzes we have participated in with fantasies about becoming a team ourselves.
- (education) A school examination of less importance, or of greater brevity, than others given in the same course.
- 2015 May 18, Matt Farrell, Shannon Maheu, “Why open-book tests deserve a place in your courses”, in Faculty Focus[3]:
- For many it is hard to envision a scenario where a student completes an online quiz (or test) without using their smartphone, tablet, or other device to look up the answers, or ‘share’ those answers with other students.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Translations edit
competition in the answering of questions
|
a school examination of less importance
|
Verb edit
quiz (third-person singular simple present quizzes, present participle quizzing, simple past and past participle quizzed)
- (transitive, archaic) To hoax; to chaff or mock with pretended seriousness of discourse; to make sport of, as by obscure questions.
- 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis[4]:
- he quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room—
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- 'Now, Puddock, back him up—encourage your man,' said Devereux, who took a perverse pleasure in joking; 'tell him to flay the lump, splat him, divide him, and cut him in two pieces—'
It was a custom of the corps to quiz Puddock about his cookery […]
- (transitive, archaic) To peer at; to eye suspiciously or mockingly.
- (transitive) To question (someone) closely, to interrogate.
- 2023 August 31, “What's on in the Lords 4-7 September”, in UK Parliament[5]:
- This week members return to the chamber to quiz the government on the Zimbabwe election, teacher shortages, backlog of asylum applications and improving the system for dementia diagnosis.
- (transitive) To instruct (someone) by means of a quiz.
- (transitive, obsolete, rare) To play with a quiz. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Translations edit
hoax
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interrogate
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References edit
- ^ Compare “The Origin of the Word Quiz”, in Museum of Hoaxes, 2012 July 10, retrieved 27 March 2019
- ^ Tréguer, Pascal (2017 May 12) “origin of 'quiz' ("Vir bonus est quis?")?”, in Word Histories – How Words and Phrases Came into Existence, retrieved 27 March 2019
Further reading edit
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “quiz”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Danish edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz c (singular definite quizzen, plural indefinite quizzer)
- quiz (competition in the answering of questions)
Inflection edit
Declension of quiz
| common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | quiz | quizzen | quizzer | quizzerne |
| genitive | quiz' | quizzens | quizzers | quizzernes |
Related terms edit
Dutch edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz m (plural quizzen, diminutive quizje n)
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz m (uncountable)
Italian edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz m (invariable)
Derived terms edit
Norman edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
quiz m (plural quizs)
Polish edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz m inan
- quiz (competition in the answering of questions)
- Synonym: zgaduj-zgadula
Declension edit
Declension of quiz
Derived terms edit
adjective
Further reading edit
Portuguese edit
Etymology 1 edit
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
quiz m (plural quizzes or quizes)
- quiz (question-answering competition)
Etymology 2 edit
Verb edit
quiz
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): (Spain) /ˈkwiθ/ [ˈkwiθ]
- IPA(key): (Latin America) /ˈkwis/ [ˈkwis]
- (Spain) Rhymes: -iθ
- (Latin America) Rhymes: -is
Noun edit
quiz m (plural quiz)
Usage notes edit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.