Mind Those Scrabble Q's! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Qoph

The Phoenician alphabet called it Qop, with a symbol resembling a circle on a vertical stick, rather like a lollipop. This led to the Aramaic Qop, which looks rather like a P made from a vertical straight line and a hook. The Syriac Qop, Arabic Qaf and Hebrew Qof or Qoph (which resembles the Aramaic letter) are all further developments.

The letter is pronounced like q or k; when transliterated, either of those may be used, but many biblical names use c. The Greek letters qoppa and phi, and the Roman Q, are all ultimately derived from Qop.

Answer: Qitarkia

The main currency unit in Albania is the Lek. This is divided into 100 units called, in English, qintar or qindar. The plural form is qindarka or qintars.

In the Middle East there is also a unit of measurement called the qintar. A qintar is equivalent to 50 kilograms, or around 110 pounds.

Answer: Qat

As is the case for many words from a semitic alphabet, the letters used to transliterate into English are not precisely defined. Qat, pronounced like chat, can also be written khat - but that wouldn't be using your Q. The Somali name for this plant is qaad or kaad. The qat plant, which is found primarily in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, has a long history of being chewed as a stimulant (with euphoric and possibly mildly hallucinogenic effects), similar to the use of the leaves of the coca plant in South America and the betel nut in Asia.

The name of the country Qatar does not seem to be related to the plant.

Answer: Qi

While most familiar when transliterated from Chinese script as chi (as in the martial arts discipline Tai Chi), qi is the choice for your Scrabble game. Qi is the vital force in all living things, and keeping it in balance (qigong, another useful word) is the principle behind Chinese medicine.

The Chinese logograph for qi can be pronounced in several ways, giving a range of meanings. The most common one gives air or vital energy. A number of the others relate to providing food - for a guest or for an animal.

Answer: Qanat

In parts of the world where it is very hot and dry, underground aqueducts allow water transport with a reduced loss due to evaporation along the way. The qanat system uses gravity to move the water from a well to a point where it can reach the surface, and many settlements in arid regions were built so as to take advantage of the availability of the water to be brought there.

In Iran, this water-bearing system is called a qanat (also transliterated as kanat, khanat, kunut, kona, konait, ghanat or ghundat) or a karez (the Persian word). The word qanat is related to the Arabic word Qanah, meaning a channel.

Answer: Quodlibet

A quodlibet is also a light-hearted musical composition using several popular tunes or their fragments put together. Such an example is the finale of Bach's "Goldberg Variations", where two popular melodies of the day: "Ich bin so lang nicht by dir g'west" (I've been away from you so long) and "Kraut und Rueben" (Cabbage and Turnips) are combined with the theme's harmonic outline. You can also hear an example of this in Debussy's "Pierrot" from "Quatre chansons de jeunesse", in which "Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot" is quoted in the piano then voice.

Answer: Quiz

As a verb, quiz may have originated from the Latin 'Qui es?' ('who are you'), traditionally the first question asked of a student in an oral examination in the middle of the 19th century, when it was first used in that way. It evolved to describe the process of setting puzzling questions; this was possibly a link to the idea of turning the person to whom the questions were directed into a quiz, or peculiar person; this noun usage had been a slang term since the 18th century. Nowadays, the noun usually refers to a set of questions, relatively short, and often presented without giving the quiz-taker a chance to prepare.

Answer: Quixotic

This word is of course in reference to the one and only Don Quixote, dubious hero of Cervantes' 'Don Quixote de la Mancha'. This story has inspired the popular musical 'Man of La Mancha', a French opera (among others) by Massenet ('Don Quichotte'), and a song cycle for baritone by Ravel called 'Don Quichotte a Dulcinee'.

Answer: a dish presented in oval form

Quenelle is a French word adapted from the German 'knoedel' which has now made its way into English. A quenelle was traditionally made from minced fish mixed with a cream sauce then sieved to produce a puree that is formed into an oval shape and poached. As a cookery term, it now refers to any malleable foodstuff presented in that shape, such as ice cream or mashed potato.

Answer: 4th day

A quartan is an intermittent fever that recurs every 72 hours, or on the fourth day, as associated with a quartan malaria. The word is derived from the Middle English quarteyne. The Latin root is 'quartus', meaning fourth.