This Quiz Is a Snap

Answer: Impulsive

"Snap" is thought to have come from the Middle English "snappe" meaning "a quick bite". It is sometimes used in the sense of too quick or lightly considered.

Answer: The quarterback

"Snap" has largely replaced "hike" as the term to describe the center transferring the ball to the quarterback at the beginning of a play. "Hike" can mean to raise up with a quick movement, but it seldom has that sense in modern usage.

Answer: No

Snapping turtles are much more aggressive on land than in water. The turtles have a worm-like growth on the end of their tongues. After burying itself in mud, the snapping turtle wriggles its "worm" as a lure to attract fish that it then seizes and eats.

Answer: Yeast

"Snaps" come in flavors other than ginger, including coconut and peanut butter. The defining characteristics seem to be roundness and crispness.

Answer: Brutal

According to "Word-detective.com", in the 17th century, idle youths stood around mindlessly snapping whips to pass the time. (This may be because yo-yos were not invented yet). "Whippersnapper" became the unflattering term for such idlers. With time the connotation of pretentiousness and unimportance became attached to the word.

Answer: Cold snap

The term "cold snap" was in use as early as 1829. It might be considered redundant. Dictionary.com now offers "a brief spell of brisk, cold weather" as a definition for "snap" unaccompanied by the adjective "cold".

Answer: Snapdragon

I considered adding "fire-breathing" to the description, but thought that was going a bit too far. "Snapdragon" is also a BBC online computer game that teaches Welsh.

Answer: A twig

James Fenimore Cooper wrote a series of books known as the "Leatherstocking Series". Mark Twain, who was one of Cooper's greatest detractors, felt they should be renamed "The Broken Twig Series". Twain maintained, "It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig.

There may be a hundred other handier things to step on, but that wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one."

Answer: A bear

"Snap" in the sense of easily done was in use by the 19th century. It presumably evolved out of the notion that what could be done quickly, "in a snap", was easy.

Answer: Snap to attention

I hope you haven't snapped under the strain of taking this quiz. It was intended to be only a snapshot of the many ways in which this snappy word can be used.