Q Is For Quality Trivia Quiz

Answer: quadriga

"Quadriga" is a contraction of the Latin "quadriiuga" - from the Latin "quatuor" ("four") and "iugum" ("yoke"), meaning "four yoked". The word refers to the chariot typically used in the extremely popular Roman sport of chariot racing; it is also used to refer to the team of four horses drawing the chariot. A very common motif in classical art, it is also found in more recent artifacts - such as the "Berlin Quadriga" (1973) set atop Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Similar to American square dancing, quadrille is a dance, fashionable in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, performed by four couples in a rectangular formation. A quadrangle is a four-sided plane figure; in architecture, it refers to a space enclosed by buildings on four sides, and is generally associated with university campuses. Quadroon, from the French "quarteron", is an obsolete and racially charged word referring to a person with one-quarter African or Aboriginal ancestry.

Answer: quinine

Quinine, of course, is not just one of the ingredients of tonic water, the popular soft drink that provides the "tonic" part of gin and tonic, but also an active chemical compound used to treat malaria. The original French word borrowed by English comes from the Spanish "quina" plus the chemical suffix "-ine". "Quina" (a shortened form of the earlier "quinquina") is derived from the Quechua "kina", meaning "bark" - in this case, the bark of the Cinchona tree, a plant native to Peru.

Quinoa, the name of a trendy, gluten-free pseudocereal, also comes from Quechua, which is one of the official languages of of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. A quiche is a French tart consisting of a pastry shell filled with a savoury custard and pieces of meat, seafood, or vegetables. Quince is a fruit originally from northern Iran, prized for its tart, aromatic pulp, though rarely eaten raw.

Answer: quarto

"Quarto" (the ablative form of the Latin "quartus", meaning "in fourth") refers to a book format produced by folding full-sized printed sheets twice, so as to produce four leaves, or eight pages. The word also describes books that are 30 cm (12 in) tall. In the US scale of book sizes, a quarto is about 24 cm x 30 cm (9½ x 12 in) - smaller than a folio (the largest size), and larger than an octavo. Many works of literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras - including many of William Shakespeare's plays - were originally published as quartos.

Quartet, the most common of the words listed here, refers to a group of four persons or things, and is often used in a musical context. Quartan is a fever (often caused by malaria) that recurs every fourth day. Quartile, a term used in statistics, is a value that divides a set of data into four segments.

Answer: quisling

Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian politician and military officer who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of Norway (1940-1945), and was executed at the end of the war. His name has become synonymous with somebody who aids and abets an invading enemy. The use of "quisling" to mean "national traitor" was coined by the British newspaper "The Times" in a 1940 editorial titled "Quislings Everywhere". For some time, during and after the war, the back-formed verb "to quisle", as well as the noun "quisler", were in use, though both words have disappeared from contemporary English usage.

The three wrong answers are all words of Latin origin. Quidnunc (Latin for "what now?) is a synonym for a gossip or busybody; a quodlibet ("what pleases") is an elaborate academic debate; quorum ("of whom") is the number of members of a group that must be present in order for some activity to be carried out or be legally valid.

Answer: quetzal

A strikingly-coloured bird with gorgeous green and red plumage, the quetzal is native to southern Mexico and Central America. Its name comes from Nahuatl (the language spoken in the Aztec Empire), and means "tall upstanding plume" - a reference to its long tail feathers, which in ancient Mesoamerica were often used as currency. The quetzal is also the currency of Guatemala, introduced in 1925.

The quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra that went extinct in the late 19th century. A quahog is also known as hard clam, a mollusk native to North and Central America. A quoll is a small, carnivorous marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea.

Answer: querulous

"Querulous" comes from Late Latin "querulosus", in turn derived from the verb "queri" ("to complain"). This adjective is closely related to the word "quarrel", which comes from the Latin "querella" ("complaint") through the Middle French "querele". Though similar in form, the word "query" has a different origin, as its source is the Latin "quaerere" ("to ask, inquire")

"Quiescent" and "quotidian" are also words of Latin origin: the former means dormant or motionless, while the latter is a synonym of "daily". "Quixotic", on the other hand, means foolishly romantic or impractical, and is derived from the name of Don Quixote, the hero of Miguel Cervantes' famous 17-th century novel, "Don Quixote de la Mancha".

Answer: qiviut

The word "qiviut", from the Inuktitut language spoken in northern Canada and Greenland, means "underwool", and refers to the soft, woolly undercoat of the muskox, a large Arctic mammal related to goats. This fiber is softer and warmer than cashmere (though very strong), and about twice as expensive because of its rarity.

A qindar (pl. "qindarka") is one-hundredth of a lek, the Albanian currency unit. Qoph is the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also representing the number 100 in Hebrew numerals. A qanat is an underground conduit that transports water from an aquifer or well to the surface, widely used in ancient times in many parts of the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia, and Southern Europe.

Answer: quay

A quay (pronounced like "key") is a stone or concrete structure, generally running parallel to the shore of a body of water, used for loading or unloading vessels. The word, whose spelling has been influenced by the French "quai", is believed to be of Celtic (Gaulish) origin, though it had the original meaning of "enclosure". Another theory has "quay" related to "key", meaning a reef or low-lying island (from "cayo", a Spanish word of Native American origin).

A quarry is an open hole or pit from which stone is extracted, while a quagmire - in its literal sense - is an area of muddy, marshy ground. A quasar, on the other hand, is something that would only be found in outer space - an extremely bright, and extremely distant, starlike object.

Answer: quirt

A quirt is a kind of short-handled riding whip, generally made of leather, with a long, braided rawhide lash attached to it. The word comes from Mexican Spanish "cuarta" ("whip"), in turn derived from Spanish "cuerda" ("rope"). This traditional whip of the Southwestern US is more effective as a cattle prod than as a riding aid, and is often featured in old-style cowboy movies.

A quiver is a portable case for holding arrows, while a quipu was a system of knotted strings used by the peoples of pre-Columbian Peru to keep accounts or record events. A quill, on the other hand, is either a writing tool made from a bird's feather, or a long, spine-like structure found in animals such as porcupines.

Answer: quench

"Quench" comes from the Old English "acwencan", which, like the modern word, meant "put out, extinguish". If used in association with "thirst", "passion", or "desire", then the verb is synonymous with "slake" or "satisfy".

"Quash" and "quell" are very similar to each other (and also to "quench") in their meaning of "subdue" or "suppress": the former, however, is of Latin origin, while the latter is of Germanic origin, and probably related to "kill". "Quaff", on the other hand, describes an action you are likely to do when you want to quench your thirst - that is, drink copiously and heartily.