quiz

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.
• 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪz

Noun

quiz (plural quizzes)

1. (dated) An odd, puzzling or absurd person or thing.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Smart to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Thackeray to this entry?)

   • 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.

2. A competition in the answering of questions.

   We came second in the pub quiz.

3. (education) A school examination of less importance, or of greater brevity, than others given in the same course.

Verb

quiz (third-person singular simple present quizzes, present participle quizzing, simple past and past participle quizzed)

1. (transitive, archaic) To hoax; to chaff or mock with pretended seriousness of discourse; to make sport of, as by obscure questions.
   • (Can we date this quote?), 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 […]

2. (transitive, archaic) To peer at; to eye suspiciously or mockingly.
3. (transitive) To question closely, to interrogate.
4. (transitive) To instruct by means of a quiz.
5. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To play with a quiz. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Etymology

Borrowed from English quiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvis/, [kʰvis]
• Homophone: quiz'

Noun

quiz c (singular definite quizzen, plural indefinite quizzer)

1. quiz (competition in the answering of questions)

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪs

Noun

quiz m (plural quizzen, diminutive quizje n)

1. quiz

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwiz/

Noun

quiz m (uncountable)

1. quiz

Noun

quiz m (invariable)

1. quiz

Etymology

Borrowed from English quiz.

Noun

quiz m (plural quizs)

1. (Jersey) quiz

Noun

quiz m (plural quizes)

1. quiz (question-answering competition)

Verb

quiz

1. Obsolete spelling of quis

Etymology

From English quiz.

Pronunciation

• (Castilian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwiθ/
• (Latin America) IPA^(key): /ˈkwis/

Noun

quiz m (plural quiz)

1. (television) quiz show