thumbnail

Words Named for Places

Guess these words that were derived from the name of a place such as a city, state, or country.
All the answers are a SINGLE WORD
The words are DERIVED from place names, not necessarily equal to place names
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: April 13, 2022
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedJanuary 31, 2012
Times taken57,717
Average score70.0%
Rating4.37
5:00
Enter word here:
0
 / 20 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Definition
Place
Word
Ground beef sandwich
German city
Hamburger
Two-piece swimsuit
Atoll in the Marshall Islands
Bikini
Health club
Belgian town
Spa
Unconventional and artistic
Czech region
Bohemian
Men's formal wear
Village in New York state
Tuxedo
Paper used in certain envelopes
Philippines city
Manila
Sport played with an oblong ball
English town
Rugby
Cylindrical red hat
Moroccan city
Fez
Rhyming poem with bawdy verse and a
9-9-6-6-9 cadence
Irish city
Limerick
Porcelain
Country
China
To kidnap a person for service on a ship
Chinese city
Shanghai
Long race
Greek town
Marathon
Footstool
Former Asian empire
Ottoman
Extinct human species
German valley
Neanderthal
Type of mustard
French city
Dijon
Homosexual woman
Greek island
Lesbian
Forbidden sexual activity
Biblical city
Sodomy
A place that is the center of an activity or interest
Saudi Arabian city
Mecca
Yellow bird
Spanish island chain
Canary
Fragrance
Germany city
Cologne
+4
Level 77
Aug 13, 2014
The canary did not get its name from the canary islands. But rather, the canary islands were so named by King Juba because of the "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size." The island was originally called Canariae Insulae, or "Island of the Dogs." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_islands
+26
Level ∞
Aug 14, 2014
The bird is named for the islands, not vice versa.
+26
Level 83
Nov 26, 2015
The islands were named the Canary Islands after dogs. The birds were then named after the islands, just to confuse etymologists in the future.
+3
Level 88
Jul 18, 2018
Wikipedia articles are written, overwritten, undone and flamed back and forth by anyone with an opinion and an internet connection. Never use them as a source. Hey, you or your internet sparring partner can just go change it like anyone else on the internet.
+36
Level 76
Jul 25, 2019
According to one study that counted the amount of errors within, Wikipedia is as reliable as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Yes, dictionaries also have mistakes, turns out having something printed doesn't make it indisputable truth. How about that.
+11
Level 66
Sep 17, 2019
yea, I am not saying it is foulproof and the best source for everything, but the fact that anyone can edit it does not make the best argument against it. It means that all faults can get picked out. Unlike dictionaries and other written sources, often only edited by 1 person (and perhaps written by 1 too) I would think that would make a bigger argument for getting it wrong.

the only thing when it gets messy is when it is more about opinions than facts. When it is about thngs that can be proven or measured, (just like in science) things will be altered untill the best most correct version keeps standing. But with unclear matters it can become pingpong (but wether that is better or worse than one of the opinions being forced upon you as the one and only truth like when it comes from a single source..

I can write a book claiming the earth is flat, ow wait, a cube perhaps, and since noone can argue with me, it will be the truth..

+31
Level ∞
Apr 7, 2020
Wikipedia is a decent source. It should not be considered a definitive source. Depending on the domain, other sources are better. But it is sure as heck is more accurate than internet commenters who post with no source at all.
+1
Level 72
May 13, 2022
This all got very post-modernist, very quickly. Postmodernism, or as my old college tutor calls it: “Disappearing-up-your-arse Studies.”
+1
Level 84
Apr 8, 2020
Wait, why would someone name a bird a "canary" if it looked nothing like a dog?
+10
Level 66
Apr 8, 2020
Well, there are some bird species know to look like dogs,Here's one Just google dogbird for more.
+1
Level 75
Apr 8, 2020
^ Ha ha, that would make Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron proud!
+1
Level 79
May 26, 2021
That bird looks photoshopped ;););)
+3
Level 82
Apr 14, 2022
Because it's native to the Canary Islands.
+4
Level 47
Aug 31, 2014
I don't even know that there is Manila paper before I've googled it. I'd known only Manila rope.
+3
Level 55
Feb 9, 2015
"I'll never forget that sweet Filipino girl who taught me the position known as: The Manila Envelope" - Arthur (Rip Torn) from the Larry Sanders Show.
+2
Level 58
May 12, 2022
Just googled this and I think it is not fair of him to only remember one girl, since two are needed for this...
+2
Level 69
Aug 4, 2016
I only knew of manila folders.
+1
Level 77
Jul 11, 2021
I've always called those large sheets that people do science presentations on Manila Tagboard; no idea where I picked it up. It may be a regionalism of Ontario.
+1
Level 81
Sep 10, 2022
Fellow Ontarian but only knew this as Bristol board
+3
Level 65
Apr 13, 2022
My 5-year-old is always stealing some 'vanilla' envelopes when she visits my office.
+1
Level 80
May 12, 2022
When I was little, I definitely also thought they were called “vanilla” envelopes. I was dismayed to find they didn’t taste good when I licked them.
+3
Level 71
Aug 31, 2014
This was a great quiz, thank you. It was interesting, unusual, well planned and educational. It really made me dredge through my memory banks for some of the answers and I learnt a few things about the answers I did not already know. Thank you
+1
Level 84
Sep 2, 2014
Great quiz, not sure why I got hung up on danish, but finally got it.
+2
Level 83
May 30, 2015
Thought of Badminton before I thought of Rugby... I'm always forgetting that you don't play badminton with a ball. D'oh!
+2
Level 84
Apr 13, 2022
Your comment made me imagine a new game: badminton, but with a rugby ball!
+3
Level 75
Feb 23, 2017
Racked my brain for a country that was also a pastry. Danish? Good quiz!
+6
Level 71
Apr 8, 2020
I'm Danish, and didn't get danish. I guess it's because we don't call it danish in Denmark, we call it "Wienerbrød", which translates to Vienna Bread.
+3
Level 65
Apr 2, 2017
Interesting quiz. I always thought that the Canary Islands were named after the bird, not the other way around.
+2
Level 82
Apr 3, 2017
They were named after dogs (canis in Latin)
+2
Level 84
Apr 4, 2017
So, all in all, some birds was named after dogs. Wonder if they love the idea.
+1
Level 82
Apr 2, 2017
fes for fez?
+2
Level 67
Apr 2, 2017
Remember -- the answer is the common English word, not its inspiration. As the Drunken Shriner said to some of his fellow conventioneers, "I remember the fez but I can't place the name."
+1
Level 82
Apr 2, 2017
I thought "spa" was a Latin acronym. Sanus per Aquam (health through water)
+12
Level 71
Apr 2, 2017
You've been reading the 'Urban Myth' handbook again.
+8
Level 82
Apr 4, 2017
nah there are just a lot of bad tour guides in Italy.
+4
Level 70
Jul 25, 2019
Half the job of a tour guide is to lie to make the place they are doing a tour of seen more influential or interesting.
+5
Level ∞
Apr 7, 2020
Interestingly, in France, some of the tour guides have college degrees in guiding tours. We had some really excellent chateaux tours in the Loire Valley.
+2
Level 82
Apr 7, 2020
That's how it is in Greece generally, the guide exam is on the level of a college degree.
+1
Level 75
Apr 8, 2020
I thought the job of a tourguide was to tell a sob story about the bus driver, then seem so touched when a tourist volunteers to pass the hat and take up a collection to help the driver out. That happened to my parents, and it also happened to friends who took the same tour two years in a row. They bit the first time, but let the hat pass by them the second time when they realized it was a scam. (Not saying all tour guides are like that, but as in any other business, there are scammers out there.)
+1
Level 78
Apr 13, 2022
I was told by a tour guide once, that they make a lot of the facts up, there philosophy was that the passengers will believe the best information available. If their information is the only information, it is therefore the best and will be believed !

My parents also fell for the hat scam. Because of all the kick backs that drivers get from tourist places, the wages are kept artificially low basing them on the fact that drivers make it up with kick backs. Vicious circle.

+1
Level 82
May 13, 2022
Was recently back in Italy, this time with my sister's family, and after they related to me some of the absolute whoppers they had been told by the guides they had for the Colosseum, Forum, and other places, I must reiterate: there are a lot of bad tour guides in Italy.

Interestingly, though, one of the things they were told that was not true was that the Colosseum was never actually flooded for mock naval battles - that this was just a myth - when in fact it's well documented that this really did take place. Interesting, because, as TWM pointed out above usually what tour guides are doing is either repeating badly sourced information, or making stuff up, to make a place seem more interesting. This guide seems to have wanted to make the Colosseum less interesting. Curious.

+1
Level 86
Apr 2, 2017
Spa towns are named after the Belgian town, whose name is probably a relative of "sparse", not an acronym.
+1
Level 82
Apr 4, 2017
that makes more sense.
+3
Level 66
Sep 17, 2019
Sparse?? what ? No. Where did you get that from (can't find any reference to sparsity) . The name of the town came from the local word for spring, "espa" first it was just a description (like with many placenames), later turned into a name.
+1
Level 66
Apr 8, 2020
Might ve come across a bit harse over here, I apologise. I apparently was struck a bit too much by surprise and that might have come out a bit unfriendly.
+1
Level 86
Apr 10, 2020
You are probably right, but that word for spring would come from the latin "sparsa". I may have translated a bit hastily, though another theory is the latin "spatia" (meaning spaced, roomy,...).
+1
Level 43
Apr 2, 2017
Most of the ones I missed I could come up with the place, but not the word
+1
Level 83
Nov 10, 2017
I didn't know that about the word spa, it turns up in a lot of place names but I didn't know that it was ultimately derived from a place name.
+2
Level 66
Sep 17, 2019
Remember though, that baths are not named after Bath, but in this case the other way around ;)
+1
Level 49
Apr 22, 2018
Got 18. Knew a couple more as it turns out
+1
Level 37
Jul 25, 2019
Really nice quiz idea! Missed Danish and a few others, but found the quiz extremely interesting nonetheless.
+3
Level 71
Sep 30, 2019
I thought sodomy just meant anal sex? Well, I guess in some countries that is still forbidden..
+1
Level 84
Sep 30, 2019
Sodomy generally refers to anal sex, but can also be used to refer to other sexual acts that one's government and/or religious leaders don't approve of. In its most restrictive, it can refer to ANY non-procreative sexual act.
+14
Level 87
Apr 7, 2020
It's not as immoral as Gomorramy.
+3
Level 84
Apr 8, 2020
Nearly spit my drink out.
+1
Level 61
May 12, 2022
made me LOL :-)
+1
Level 51
Oct 30, 2020
Interestingly, in German, the word refers primarily to sex with animals. I wonder how this difference came about.
+2
Level 79
Apr 14, 2022
in word usage or personal tastes?
+1
Level 77
Apr 25, 2022
I suppose they’re not mutually exclusive. Ew, quizmaster, this discussion thread is out of hand.
+2
Level 87
Apr 7, 2020
You misspelled "chihuahua" in your answer. Also, I believe the derivation of "Guinea" is in some dispute.
+3
Level 83
Apr 7, 2020
Greetings from Mustard City!
+2
Level 87
Apr 7, 2020
belgian not beglian
+4
Level 83
Apr 7, 2020
Fun fact: The Neandertal was itself named after Joachim Neander, a german priest who often held services in said valley.
+1
Level 66
Apr 8, 2020
Didn't know that :) nice to learn new factoids
+2
Level 66
Apr 8, 2020
Ofcourse I had to look it up now. Apparently the guys familyname was Neumann (which makes more sense to me, part of the reason I looked it up was because I had never heard of Neander as a german last name). It was translated into greek "neo-ander" as Neu Mann means new man.

Neumanntall actually sounds better Newmanvalley, well actualy it is more like pre-man, the new (hu)man came after.

+1
Level 63
Apr 8, 2020
I never heard of a health club before. Maybe because that's not a term here. Wellness center I would've gotten.
+3
Level 77
Apr 13, 2020
Ottomon, less a footstool, more a divan/backless sofe/blanker box?
+1
Level 66
Apr 18, 2022
Yes, I found footstool to be misleading, at best; your definition of ottoman comports much more with my understanding.
+2
Level 65
Apr 30, 2020
There is a lot of dispute on the hamburger origin, with a lot of people having claims on the invention & naming. It is quite likely that it was not named after the German city, though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger#Claims_of_invention
+1
Level 67
Apr 30, 2020
Smashed it. Scored 23/23 with 2:23 left on the clock. There was only four I couldn't get first time through but I had enough time left to come up with the right answers.
+2
Level 74
Apr 30, 2020
got 19, a few typein proposals: Fes, Sodomity and what I would generally like is for the place to be accepted too.
+2
Level 60
Apr 30, 2020
You probably meant "German city" and not "Germany city" in the clue for "fragrance" :)
+2
Level 59
Apr 30, 2020
I first tried Essen for the German fragrance question, you know, as in "essence.' Sigh. I've done too many crossword puzzles.
+4
Level 56
Apr 30, 2020
point of information: the game of rugby wasn't named for the town of Rugby but for Rugby School, a posh boys school where it was invented as a spinoff of football (the english one, not the american one).
+2
Level 64
Apr 30, 2020
Really minor technicality, but the village in New York that gave the tuxedo its name is called Tuxedo Park. It's in the Town of Tuxedo. The gated development of Tuxedo Park was established in 1886, and the town in which the development lay separated from the Town of Monroe three years later. Tuxedo Park was a well-off area until the stock market crash, and the black-tie suit became known as a tuxedo because of the people of Tuxedo Park - which didn't become an incorporated village until much later (1952). Like many area place names, Tuxedo is derived from a Lenape word. (I used to live 30 miles from there.)
+1
Level 37
May 2, 2020
I thought that the English money was pronounced 'gui-nee'', while the country is pronounced "Gui-nea". Not a sound alike at all.
+2
Level 82
Apr 14, 2022
They're pronounced exactly the same.
+1
Level 69
Jun 4, 2020
I thought madras was a medium-to-hot curry.
+1
Level 78
Jan 5, 2022
It's certainly not a well-known fabric
+3
Level 61
Jul 22, 2020
I love that the quiz accepted 'chewwawa' as my phonetic version of the mexican dog!!
+2
Level 73
Aug 11, 2020
Could've done Turkey as well.
+2
Level 60
Sep 17, 2020
Cant believe I missed lesbian. I saw it just a couple days ago.
+7
Level 78
Jan 5, 2022
A lesbian?
+5
Level 64
Apr 13, 2022
Rugby balls are OBLONG? Seriously?
+3
Level 79
Apr 13, 2022
Agreed, oval or ellipse would be a better description. Also, the game was named after the Rugby school, not the town itself.
+1
Level 79
Apr 14, 2022
It would certainly make grubber kicks even more interesting
+1
Level 82
Apr 14, 2022
That irritated the hell out of me too. QM - that's not an oblong. At all.
+1
Level 72
May 13, 2022
In Britain, an oblong means the same as a rectangle… But I won’t get into it, lest someone get on their high horse and produce 10 paragraphs on why they hate British English. I think many of us know who that ‘someone’ be ;-D
+1
Level 82
Apr 15, 2022
Dang I kept trying Sapphic for the homosexual woman
+1
Level 74
Apr 24, 2022
Sappho was a woman not a place. She lived in the island of Lesbos. so it is more common referred to "Sapphic love" and "Lesbian woman". Although Sappho was likely to be bisexual for all we know.
+1
Level 89
May 12, 2022
I was thinking of dirtier terms for the question that asked for sodomy.
+2
Level 67
May 12, 2022
A fez is not cylindrical. It is shaped like a conical frustum.
+2
Level 79
May 12, 2022
I think 'Fes' should be accepted.
+2
Level 79
May 12, 2022
Also for the last place, 'Germany city' should read 'German city'
+1
Level 72
May 12, 2022
Thank you for reminding me of one of the funniest quotes by a sports--well "sports"--commentator: "Madison Square Garden, the mecca of professional wrestling."
+1
Level 68
May 12, 2022
Sifhraven, back in April 2020 you posted an apology for a comment you felt had sounded a bit unfriendly. That was gracious of you.

I frequently cringe at the way people word criticisms and corrections on here, often with no apparent thought for others' feelings, especially those who have gone to the effort of making quizzes. However, I do remind myself that not all who post are using their first language. It is quite easy to be offensive in English without meaning to be. And wonderfully easy to be very rude whilst pretending to be polite.

Anyway, I hope I'm not sounding patronising by showing appreciation for a courteous gesture.

+3
Level 65
May 12, 2022
Nice quiz. The Ottoman empire straddled Europe, Asia and Africa. Maybe best to call it a 'Muslim empire'.
+3
Level 32
May 13, 2022
Where Damascus Steel?
+1
Level 66
May 17, 2022
As a Formula 1 fan it really sucks that I missed Spa.
+1
Level 66
Nov 16, 2022
For limericks, there are three longer lines and two shorter.

I don't think the number of syllables has to be 9s and 6s. there `are many examples with 8 or 10 in the long lines and five in the shorter