The Kitchen Steps Trivia Quiz

Answer: Washer

Clothes washing had to be done by hand until comparatively recently. The first commercial washing machines were produced in the 1850s, but washers for the home took longer to become widely available. Even in the 1960s, in the UK at least, twin tubs were the most commonly used washers, with the wet clothes having to be transferred from the washing tub to the spin dryer part.

By the late twentieth century, automatic machines, with numerous different programmes, could be found in most homes.

Answer: Swear

To swear an oath is to make a solemn and binding declaration, often, in Christian countries, with a hand on the Bible to acknowledge the truth of what is being said. In common parlance, swearing is the use of abusive and profane language, which is frequently offensive to others.

Answer: Eras

In everyday use, an era describes any long period of time. In science or history, the word is used more specifically to denote periods of time with a specific start and finish date. The Victorian era, for example, covers the years 1837 to 1901 when Queen Victoria was the British monarch.

Answer: Ear

Cereals which have ears include wheat, rye and barley. The ear can also refer to the organ of hearing, which is also responsible for maintaining equilibrium. Ears also appear in many idioms - to have a 'tin ear' is to have poor musical sense and to be 'wet behind the ears' means to be inexperienced.

Answer: Re

Many legal documents carry the heading 'Re:' to highlight the purpose of the correspondence. Re can also be the second note of the musical scale, as in 'do re mi' (just ask Julie Andrews). It is sometimes used as shorthand for 'regarding' in everyday speech.

Answer: E

The letter 'e' is derived from the Greek epsilon. As well as being the most frequently used letter in English, it is also the most common in other languages including French, German and Spanish.

Answer: Ye

In the Old English language, the word 'thou' was used when talking to one person and 'ye' was the form of address for more than one. This gradually changed over many years, and we now use 'you' for both purposes.

Answer: Dye

A dye is used to change the colour of many items, including materials and foods as well as hair. Dyes were originally made from naturally available materials such as berries and leaves. Synthetic dyes were developed in the nineteenth century and there is now a wide range of shades available.

Answer: Drey

A drey is the nest of a squirrel, which is constructed of twigs and situated high in a tree for safety. Each squirrel can have as many as three dreys, and make use of each, although they will also happily build a nest in your loft if they can gain access.

Answer: Dryer

A dryer is used to extract moisture from laundry, often by a tumbling motion. The dryer can be a separate machine, or part of a washing machine as a washer/dryer. The latter machines can be programmed to wash and then dry a load of laundry and be left unattended.

These are a far cry from the original days of hand washing, wringing out (by hand, or using a mangle) and hanging the clothes out to dry, while hoping that there would be no rain to ruin the process.