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Do You Even Know Word Origins?
Can you guess the etymology of these words that have particularly history-based origins?
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Last updated: December 5, 2023
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| First submitted | December 5, 2023 |
| Times taken | 31 |
| Average score | 73.3% | Report this quiz | Report |
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1.
Pasteurized Milk
The Pasteurial system, where cows are quarantined, drastically reduced the risk of tuberculosis in milk
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Basque monk Léo Pasté devised a filtration system that allowed the efficient skimming of milk
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French scientist Louis Pasteur devised a system to limit microbial growth in milk
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2.
Male Chauvinism
“Chauve” means male-baldness in French, and male-pattern baldness was a sign of supreme virility in 18th-century France
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Nicolas Chauvin was a soldier who blindly and excessively loved the French First Republic
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Slovenian wrestler Anze Chauv challenged women to wrestle to “prove” male dominance in athletics
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3.
Macadamia Nuts
It was initially called a Macedonia nut, but the “N” sound didn’t exist in Hawaiian and it shifted to Macadamia
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Explorer James Cook named the nut after the Ancient Greek land of fruit farmers, Macadamia
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A leading botanist in Australia, Dr. von Mueller, named the tree after his scientist friend, John Macadam
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4.
Epsom Salts
Denmark’s Epsom Geyser produces a salt of magnesium oxide, which had been collected since the 1700s for its restorative properties
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Lady Delilah Epsom was a mystic healer who used rare salts and crystals in the Ritz Hotel in 1910s Paris
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Epsom Springs was a popular spa for 1600s Londoners
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5.
The Common Sandwich
Mary Sand included instructions for making the sandwich, which was a portmanteau of her name and the Greenwich Scone
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John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, invented the food to keep his fingers clean during poker
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The Scottish term “south dish” shifted over time to “sandwich”
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6.
Decibel
The term pays homage to the Belle Decade of the 1890s
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The character Decibella was a shrill, shrieking character in several popular Italian operas
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“Bel” comes from Alexander Graham Bell’s last name, and deci- means “one tenth”
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7.
Kafkaesque
Kafkaesque was a Polish ballet that led to dozens of cases of severe injury in the star performer
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Kafka was an early twentieth-century writer whose most famous stories focused on protagonists in confusing, punishing situations for seemingly no reason
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Kafka was a medieval king who famously put people on trial for seemingly no reason other than to invent creative punishments
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8.
Machiavellian
Machiavelli was a former political advisor who wrote a book advising leaders to be cunning, ruthless, and feared
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Machiavelli was a historian who primarily focused on the brutal reigns of ancient kings, like Ozymandias and Nebuchadnezzar
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Machiavelli was a Shakespearean character in “Corialanus”, who is most noted for going mad and having his own family executed
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9.
Draconian Laws
Khan Drakon of the Mongol Empire was known for being notoriously ruthless on the Eurasian Steppe
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Lawmaker Draco of Ancient Athens proscribed the first codified laws, which often had extreme punishments for minor offences
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Dracon was the mythical serpent sent by Poseidon to kill all members of Odysseus’s crew who saw Persephone bathing in the waters of Antigone
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10.
Sisyphean Task
Finding the belt of Sisyphus, a lesser deity of the desert, was the only task that Hercules was unable to perform
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Legendary Sumerian King Gilgamesh couldn’t stay awake for two weeks to pass Sisyphus’s test for immortality
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Inhospitable king Sisyphus was forced by the Greek gods to roll a boulder up a hill, but it only rolls back down every time he gets to the top
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11.
Dom Pérignon Champagne
Dominic Pérign became France’s first billionaire by acquiring over a dozen luxury brands
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Dom Pérignons were “father warriors”, Norman warrior priests who invented bubbling wine
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Dom Pérignon was a Benedictine monk who helped advance French winemaking techniques
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12.
Shrapnel
It was derived from poor pronunciation during the American Civil War, where they probably meant “sharp round”
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It comes from Norse, where “shrap” means “stab”, and “nel” means “tiny”
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Henry Shrapnel invented the antipersonnel weapon in the late-18th century
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13.
Pyrrhic Victory
Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated the Romans at the Battle of Asculum at such great cost, that he had to give up the bigger campaign
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Greek general Aoscides ordered the use of Pyrrhic Acid, or Greek Fire, against Romans invading Delphi; the defence was successful but it burned the city to the ground
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Greek philosopher Pyrrhus of Sapphos won an argument against a powerful aristocrat, who executed him in retaliation
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14.
Bubonic Plague
Romans first saw cases of the disease in Bubonia, modern-day Azerbaijan
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A “bubo” is a large bump caused by a swollen lymph node
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Bubonic means “caused by severe imbalance of the humours” in Latin
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15.
Italic Font
Printer Aldus Manutius wanted a typeface that emulated an Italian handwritten manuscript, so he gave it a slant and called it Italics
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Pope Austere II used a different style of handwriting when writing in Latin and when writing in Italian, leading to Italic decrees
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Italian newspapers used a thinner, finer font to reduce ink costs in the 1840s; journalists in other countries called it italics
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Nice quiz!
Small nitpick. Epsom is in Surrey, not London. I've been to the original well before (not much to see). But people certainly visited from London, not far away, so maybe that's what the answer is referring to?