# 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", 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.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kwɪz/, [kʰw̥ɪz]
* Audio (General American):(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, 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

* minefield quiz
* pop quiz
* pub quiz
* quiz bowl
* quiz kid
* quizzer
* quizzery
* quizzical
* quizzify
* quizzy

#### Descendants

* → Danish: quiz
* → Dutch: quiz, kwis
* → German: Quiz
* → Indonesian: kuis
* → Japanese: クイズ (kuizu)
* → Korean: 퀴즈 (kwijeu)
* → Norman: quiz
* → Norwegian Bokmål: quiz, kviss
* → Norwegian Nynorsk: quiz, kviss
* → Polish: kwiz, quiz
* → Portuguese: quiz
* → Spanish: quiz
* → Swedish: kviss
* → Welsh: cwis

#### Translations
### 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.
** 2023 August 31, “What's on in the Lords 4-7 September”, in UK Parliament‎: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
### References

* ↑ 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

* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “quiz”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

## Danish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English quiz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kvis/, [kʰvis]
* Homophone: quiz'

### Noun

quiz c (singular definite quizzen, plural indefinite quizzer)
* quiz (competition in the answering of questions)

#### Related terms

* quizze ("to quiz")

## Dutch
### Alternative forms

* kwis

### Etymology

Borrowed from English quiz

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʋɪs/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪs

### Noun

quiz m (plural quizzen, diminutive quizje n)
* quiz

#### Derived terms

* quizzen

#### Related terms

* pubquiz

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kwiz/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

quiz m (uncountable)
* quiz

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /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: /ˈkwis/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -is
* Syllabification: quiz

### Noun

quiz m inan
* quiz (competition in the answering of questions)
    Synonym: zgaduj-zgadula

#### Derived terms

* 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

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈkwis/
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈkwis/
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /ˈkwiʃ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈkwi.zɨ/

#### Noun

quiz m (plural quizzes or quizes)
* quiz (question-answering competition)

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

quiz
* Obsolete spelling of quis.

## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English quiz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Spain) /ˈkwiθ/ [ˈkwiθ]
* IPA: (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈkwis/ [ˈkwis]
* Rhymes: -iθ
* 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.