Foreign Words in English Trivia Quiz

Answer: Czech

Czech writer and painter Josef Capek had created the word robot for his brother's theatre play. Karel Capek used the word for first time in his play "R.U.R." The name "robot" is derived from Czech word "robota" meaning "corvée"; "robot" is someone doing a corvée or chore. In addition, Slovak has the word "robota" and Russian has a similar word "rabota"; both with the meaning "work."
Corvée is a type of forced labor when a cotter is forced to work for a feudal lord free of charge.

Answer: Serbian

English has adopted the word "vampire" via another Western European language, but the original source is Serbian word "vampir". Serbian is a southern Slavic language.

Answer: Russian

English borrowed the word from French, but it has a Russian origin. Russian word "bystro" means "fast". Therefore, "bistro" can be understood as "fast food".

Answer: Czech

There are multiple explanations of the "pistol" origin available. Three most mentioned are following:
1.Czech language developed the word "pistole" during the Hussite wars. Hussites derived it from "pistala" - pipe - because of the shape. Many medieval soldiers did battle with Hussites and had many possibilities to get familiar with their weapons. German borrowed the word from Czech and passed it westwards.
2.The name pistol is derived from the Italian city and region Pistonia well known for handgun manufacturers.
3.The French word pistallo (a part of saddle where handguns were hang) is the origin of "pistol"

Answer: Arabic

Arabic - Latin - French and finally English, this is the metamorphosis of "al kuhl" to "alcohol". The original "al kuhl" means delicate powder.

Answer: German

Dollar is the corruption of word "Taler", the German monetary unit. The first "Taler" had been minted in Bohemian city Jáchymov (Ger. Joachimsthal) under name Joachimsthaler - Thaler.

Answer: False

Genocide is the most serious international crime and the world has used it over sixty years. It is an artificial word combined together by Raphael Lemkin (Polish/Jewish jurist and author) in 1943. It has two parts, Greek word "genos" (for family, tribe, race, or nation), and Latin "cide" (for massacre or killing).

Answer: Omnipotent

Surely, omnipotent - this word has a Latin origin.

Answer: Slavic

"Vodka" originates as a diminutive of the Slavic word "voda" (water), and its first recorded use was in Poland in the 15th century. It was adopted by Russians in the 16th century. It is usually with one of these two countries that we most associate vodka, although other countries such as Sweden and Finland are proud of their vodka traditions.

Austronesian languages are found in islands of southeast Asia and the Pacific, Ubangian in Africa, and Iroquoian in North America.

Answer: They were developed in India

These ciphers are widely called "Arabic" because Arabic mathematics had presented them to Europe. However, they are of Indian origin and Arabs do not use them. Many European historical buildings have year of construction marked in Roman numerals i.e. 1789 - MDCCLXXXIX. But they are too inefficient for mathematics.