quiz
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kwɪz/
ipa: [kʰw̥ɪz]
rhymes: -ɪz
Forms: form: quizzes
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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1796, Fanny Burney, Camilla: or, A picture of youth, by the author of Evelina, page 99:
text: 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.
ref: 1833, Maria Edgeworth, Moral Tales, volume 1, page 204:
text: Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch.
ref: 1803, Jane Austen, chapter 7, in Northanger Abbey, published 1816:
text: “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?
ref: 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis:
glosses: An odd, puzzling or absurd person or thing.
glosses: One who questions or interrogates; a prying person.
examples: text: We came second in the pub quiz.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A competition in the answering of questions.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2015 May 18, Matt Farrell, Shannon Maheu, “Why open-book tests deserve a place in your courses”, in Faculty Focus:
topics: education
glosses: A school examination of less importance, or of greater brevity, than others given in the same course.
Derived terms: cryptoquiz
minefield quiz
pop quiz
pub quiz
quest
quisby
quizbook
quiz bowl
quiz kid
quizlet
quizlike
quizmaster
quizmistress
quizzacious
quizzee
quizzer
quizzery
quizzical
quizzicle
quizzification
quizzify
quizzish
quizzism
quizzy
requiz
squizz