Revelations Trivia Quiz

Answer: handkerchiefs

Coverchief literally means something that covers the 'chief' or head. Think head scarf or bandana. When something was needed to attend to personal needs, that piece of material was an obvious choice to grab in the hand and use. It was then a handcoverchief, which is clearly too long for everyday use, and got shortened to the modern handkerchief.

Not that they are all that modern now. Most people are more likely to carry a small packet of paper tissues than a handkerchief.

Answer: soup

While the word supper is not directly related to the word soup, they share origins. Supper was soper in the 13th century, a word adopted from the Old French to refer to the last meal of the day. In France at the time, that was usually included soup (soupe) and bread, so referring to the act of eating it as supping made sense. And the meal became supper.

Answer: spirit

The brand name Sprite is the same as a word meaning a supernatural being along the lines of an elf or fairy. The word can also refer to a disembodied spirit, such as shown in the image. While sprite can also be spelled spright, the adjective form sprightly, meaning lively and full of energy, is more commonly heard.

The term is more usually used in reference to an elderly person whose energy, either physical or mental, is greater than one might expect for one of their age.

Answer: sorrel

The sorrel plant, which has been cultivated and eaten for centuries, got its name from its Old French name, 'surelle', coming from a Proto-Germanic word which also gave us the Old English word sur that became the modern word sour. The name refers to the distinctive sharp taste of the leaves, which comes from the presence of oxalic acid, which was first identified by analysis of the chemical composition of sorrel. 'Oxalis' was the Latin name for the plant.

The animal coat colour sorrel is a reddish-brown, the word derived from the Old French 'sorel', a yellowish-brown. The original root is probably a Germanic word meaning dry.

Answer: parson

The change from a person to a parson is a simple vowel shift, but it was reserved for those who had an affiliation with the church. The title may have been shortened from the Latin 'persona ecclesiae', meaning person of the church. In any case, the person in charge of a specific parish in an Anglican church came to be known as the parson.

It originally referred to a specific type of position, but then came to be used for almost any person in legal control of a parish, regardless of their financial position (which might be that of a rector, a vicar or a perpetual curate). When funding arrangements were changed in the 19th century, the latter distinctions disappeared, and the term vicar came to be the most commonly used.

Answer: caboose

The word caboose, referring to a ship's galley, first appeared in English in 1747. The Middle Dutch original probably came from the Low German 'kabhuse', compounded from words meaning cabin and house - hence, a cabin on the ship's deck. The cooking arrangements were much safer if carried out on the deck rather than below deck.

The rise of railroads led to the name being transferred in North America to apply to a special car attached to the end of a train in which the crew could shelter and monitor proceedings. On long trips, there was also provision for eating and sleeping.

Answer: sprinkle

Sprinkling is the act of dispersing a liquid over something in fine droplets, such that they may bounce off, or may settle in place as discrete areas of water, rather than covering the surface. The word sprinkle first appeared in English in the late 14th century, and according to some sources comes from a PIE root 'sprengh' (from which we also get the word spring), meaning to move quickly, leap, burst forth. An alternative etymology links sprinkle with the Middle Dutch word 'sprenkel', meaning a spot or speck. Early in the 20th century the word sprinkle started to be used for a light shower of rain consisting of fine droplets.

Answer: shudder

While shiver may seem to fit, it has the wrong number of letters, and the wrong etymology. Actually, the etymology of shiver is quite unclear, and may be related to the concept of chill. The word shudder, which is not found in Old English, seems to have come from Middle Dutch 'schuderen' or the Middle Low German 'schoderen', both of which mean to shake.

Interestingly enough, the English word shake comes from the Old English sceacan, describing the act of moving something back and forth, and not from a Germanic root.

Answer: tug

The word tuck comes to us from Germanic origins, one of several possible words meaning to pull or tug. Its use in English has changed to be applied to the act of gathering up, as in the description of tucking in a sheet on a bed, or tucking someone under the covers.

But first you have to pull the bedding into place, and the word tug (which we got from the Proto-Germanic '*teuhan', meaning to pull) describes that step.

Answer: spuds

In the 15th century, a spud was a small knife. The word probably came from a Germanic word, not clearly identified, that relates to a spear. In the 17th century the word came to be used to describe a spade. Although spud and spade sound similar, the word spade comes from a PIE word referring to a long flat piece of wood.

When the English started calling a spade a spud, it became inevitable that something for which a spud's use was involved would be given that nickname. The first use of spud to describe a potato was recorded in New Zealand in 1845.