English Words of Welsh Origin Trivia Quiz

Answer: balderdash

Appearing in the 1590s, balderdash, originally meaning "jumbled mix of liquors", came by the 1670s to mean "nonsensical jumble of words". It is most seen as an interjection ("Balderdash!"), and was the name of a game show. The origins are obscure and speculative, but it possibly came from the Welsh 'baldorddu', a sweet pudding or custard made from flour or oatmeal, milk, eggs, and gelatin -- now called flummery! And it so happens that the word 'flummery' is also of Welsh derivation, from 'llymru'.

Answer: flannel

Although the OED considers the origin of the word 'flannel' uncertain, other sources indicate that the Middle English word 'flaunneol' is a variant of the word 'flanen' ("sackcloth"), which came from the Welsh 'gwlanen', which means "woollen fabric", from 'gwlān' ("wool"). Flannel is of course a soft and slightly napped fabric, traditionally of wool, though cotton flannels with a thicker nap on one side have become popular since the late 20th century.

(Some sources hypothesize an alternate origin, from Old French 'flaine', meaning "blanket of coarse wool".)

Answer: cardigan

The 7th Earl of Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, distinguished himself in the Crimean War, and popularized the style of a button-up, collarless knitted sweater or jacket that bears his name. (In fact, he wore it during the Charge of the Light Brigade.) Cardigan may sound Irish to some ears, but it is anglicized from the Welsh 'Ceredigion', meaning "Ceredig's land", once a minor kingdom and now a county. Ceredig ap Cunedda (c.420-453) was king of Ceredigion, in present-day Mid Wales.

He and his father, Cunedda, the founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, helped fight off Irish invaders, and Ceredig received a portion of the reconquered lands for bravery. Ceredig's daughter, St.

Ina, has a church dedicated to her near New Quay, Ceredigion, Wales.

Answer: penguin

In the 16th century, 'penguin' was another name for the great auk, a flightless bird of the North Atlantic that was driven to extinction by the 19th century. Only after exploration, when penguins were encountered in the Southern Hemisphere by Europeans, did the name become applied to those aquatic flightless birds which bore similar coloring (a black back and a white belly), though little relation.

The English word quite likely comes from the Welsh words 'pen' ("head") and 'gwyn' ("white", from which the name Gwendolyn is also derived). Great auks were called penguins either because they were found on White Head Island, a Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy, or because they had white circles around the eyes (though the head itself was black). Even today, the genus Pinguinus belongs to the great auk, and not to the various species of penguins!

Answer: crockery

Although the OED suggests an Icelandic origin, other sources point to the Welsh 'crochan' meaning "pot" or "cauldron" or "boiler" and derived from an earlier Celtic language from which we also get the Gaelic 'crogan' and the Manx and Irish 'crocan'. In English, 'crockery' first appeared in 1719, though as the word 'crockery-ware'. The surname Crocker means "potter".

Answer: iron

The ancient Welsh word 'haearn' lent itself to the Old English 'iren', which eventually became the Modern English 'iron'. 'Haearn' came from a Celtic root meaning "holy, strong metal" -- holy because the swords used in the Crusades were made of iron -- and it is still used in Wales today to refer either to the metal or to the appliance (just as 'iron' is used in English).

Conversely the verb, whether you mean "to iron" or "ironing", is 'smwddio', which is borrowed from the English 'smooth'.

Answer: bard

It's quite possible that 'bard' comes directly from the Welsh bardd, though possibly as well from Irish or Scots Gaelic. A bard was originally an ancient Celtic order of minstrels who composed and recited verses celebrating the exploits of heroes of their tribe. In modern times, the winner of a verse competition at the Royal National Eisteddfod (an annual festival of Welsh musicians, dramatists, poets) is deemed a bard. The word 'bard', always complimentary in Wales, was once disparaging in Scotland, though that changed by the 17th century.

Answer: craggy

A crag is generally steep rugged rock or peak, especially a cliff by the sea. The word appeared in general use during the 14th century, though it was part of place names even back in the 12th century. In the mid-15th century, the adjective 'craggy' emerged, meaning "having crags" or more generally "rough, rugged, and uneven".

It may have originated from the Welsh 'craig'; Wales is certainly a mountainous country, especially in the northern and central parts. A cragsman is a skillful mountaineer, and in the 19th century especially referred to one skilled at climbing sea-cliffs to get to the eggs of birds nesting there.

Answer: adder

From the Welsh 'neidr' ("snake or serpent") came the Old English 'nęddre', which became the Middle English 'nadder'. Eventually, "a nadder" was mis-analyzed as as "an adder" sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries. This kind of faulty separation has happened to 'orange', 'apron', 'nickname', 'umpire' and many other English words -- formerly "a norange", "a napron", "an ekename", etc.

Adders are distinguished by a zigzag pattern on their backs. Legend has it that the adder stops its ears to avoid hearing the music of a snake charmer. It's no legend, however, that the adder, unlike most reptiles, gives birth to live young. The common adder, or black adder, is the only venomous reptile native to Great Britain.

Answer: crumpet

A crumpet is a griddle cake, specifically a thick, flat, round, yeast-risen bread. Crumpets are beloved in the UK, Ireland, and throughout the Commonwealth nations, and griddle bread, or 'bara-planc', was very much a part of the everyday Welsh diet until the 19th century. One etymology for 'crumpet' is that it comes from Middle English 'crompid', past tense of 'crumpen' ("to curl up"). According to Martha Shulman in her book "Great Breads" (1995), however, the name for the crumpet, a griddle cake, comes from Wales. Shulman believes that the word 'crumpet' comes from Welsh 'crempog', referring to a sort of pancake.

Folks in some regions of England call crumpets 'pikelets', but this word comes from Welsh as well! Entrepreneur Elizabeth Raffald wrote in her cookbook 'The Experienced English Housekeeper' (1769) of small oval pancakes called 'picklets', from the Welsh 'bara pyglyd' meaning "pitchy bread", which is to say, "dark, sticky bread". Anglicized to 'pikelet', the word spread to West Midlands, then to Yorkshire and other northern counties -- Raffald herself being from Doncaster, Yorkshire. (Raffald is also credited for writing the first recipe for the modern wedding cake and for inventing the Eccles cake, among other accomplishments. Her cookbook was one of the most plagiarized books in modern history.)

Crumpets are the size of English muffins, but whereas a muffin is split before toasting, the crumpet is toasted whole, then buttered (or spread with cream and jam) on the porous top surface.