Intermediate+ Word of the Day: quiz

daily.wordreference.com/2022/12/08/intermediate-word-of-the-day-quiz/

quiz (noun, verb)

/kwiz/

LISTEN

A quiz is an informal and short test for students or a series of questions. It’s also an
archaic word for a practical joke or someone odd or eccentric. As a verb, to quiz means to
examine students by asking them questions and also to question really closely and in
detail. Another archaic meaning of quiz is ‘to make fun or mock someone or something.’

Example sentences

We have a quiz in history today.

Our club is competing in a general knowledge quiz against a club from the next
town.
The young men were determined to play a quiz upon their teacher.
The old man was something of a quiz, with his colourful clothes and big glasses.
The teacher quizzed her students on their Spanish vocabulary.
The journalists are quizzing the politician on the government's new austerity
measures.
Sir, I believe you are quizzing me; it is quite naughty of you.

Words often used with quiz

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pop quiz (US): a surprise quiz. Example: “It was a terrible day! My math teacher gave a
pop quiz and I couldn’t answer any of the questions!”

In pop culture
Jeopardy is the classic quiz show, or game show, in the United States. In it, contestants
are given answers and must provide the question. For example, “This bilingual dictionary
website was founded in 1999 and features language forums, an English Word of the Day,
and extensive translations of compound forms.” Then contestants would buzz in and say,
“What is WordReference.com?”

In this video, you can see host Ken Jennings, who is also the most successful Jeopardy
player ever and Amy Schneider, the 2022 Tournament of Champions winner, who,after a
40-game winning streak, has become a spokesperson for trans rights.

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/BLj3R56XGMI

Additional information

In reference to testing students, quiz, both as a noun and a verb, is more commonly used
in US than UK English.

Did you know?

In the UK, a lot of pubs (bars) run quiz nights, where people form teams and try to answer
as many general knowledge questions as possible. These are called pub quizzes. The
team that gets the most questions right wins. Normally the prize is the entrance fee
everyone has paid to take part in the quiz. We also have these in the US, but they are
much less common there than in the UK.

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Other forms

quizzer (noun), quizzical (adj)

Origin

The word quiz is relatively new to English. It first appeared in the late 18th century,
meaning ‘odd person.’ Quiz, meaning ‘to question’ was first used in the mid-19th century,
with the verb appearing only a few years before the noun. Nobody is sure where it came
from, though it is likely it started as slang in British grammar schools. Some linguists think
this use came from the Latin phrase qui es? (who are you?), which was often the first
question asked during a short oral test in Latin class. The spelling we recognize today
was first used in the late 19th century.

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