quiz
See also: Quiz and quiz'
English
Etymology
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
- IPA(key): /kwɪz/, [kʰw̥ɪz]
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪz
Noun
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, 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:
- “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 and Shannon Maheu, “Why open-book tests deserve a place in your courses”, in Faculty Focus:
- 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
- quiz kid
- quizzer
- quizzery
- quizzical
- quizzify
- quizzy
Translations
competition in the answering of questions
|
a school examination of less importance
|
Verb
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:
- 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.
- (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
hoax
|
interrogate
|
References
- Compare “The Origin of the Word Quiz”, in Museum of Hoaxes, 10 July 2012, retrieved 27 March 2019
- Tréguer, Pascal (12 May 2017), “origin of 'quiz' ("Vir bonus est quis?")?”, in Word Histories – How Words and Phrases Came into Existence, retrieved 27 March 2019
Danish
Etymology
Borrowed from English quiz.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kvis/, [kʰvis]
- Homophone: quiz'
Noun
quiz c (singular definite quizzen, plural indefinite quizzer)
- quiz (competition in the answering of questions)
Inflection
Declension of quiz
| common gender | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | quiz | quizzen | quizzer | quizzerne |
| genitive | quiz' | quizzens | quizzers | quizzernes |
Related terms
- quizze ("to quiz")
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɪs
Noun
quiz m (plural quizzen, diminutive quizje n)
- quiz
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kwiz/
Noun
quiz m (uncountable)
- quiz
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkwit͡s/*
- Rhymes: -its
- Hyphenation: quìz
Noun
quiz m (invariable)
- quiz
Derived terms
- telequiz
Norman
Etymology
Borrowed from English quiz.
Noun
quiz m (plural quizs)
- (Jersey) quiz
Polish
Alternative forms
- kwiz
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kwis/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -is
- Syllabification: quiz
Noun
quiz m inan
- quiz (competition in the answering of questions)
- Synonym: zgaduj-zgadula
Declension
Declension of quiz
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | quiz | quizy |
| genitive | quizu | quizów |
| dative | quizowi | quizom |
| accusative | quiz | quizy |
| instrumental | quizem | quizami |
| locative | quizie | quizach |
| vocative | quizie | quizy |
Derived terms
adjective
- quizowy
Further reading
- quiz in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- quiz in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Portuguese
Etymology 1
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /ˈkwi.z(ɨ)/
Noun
quiz m (plural quizzes or quizes)
- quiz (question-answering competition)
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈkis/
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /ˈkiʃ/
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /ˈkiʃ/
Verb
quiz
- Obsolete spelling of quis
Spanish
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (Spain) /ˈkwiθ/ [ˈkwiθ]
- IPA(key): (Latin America) /ˈkwis/ [ˈkwis]
- (Spain) Rhymes: -iθ
- (Latin America) Rhymes: -is
Noun
quiz m (plural quiz)
- (television) quiz show
Usage notes
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.