Game, Set, Match! Trivia Quiz

Answer: increase in value

To increase in value is to gain something.

Game comes from the Old English word 'gamen' which means amusement or fun. Game is also an eighteenth century dialect word describing the leg of a person who is lame.

Answer: long upholstered seat

A long upholstered seat is a settee.

Some more meanings of 'set' are a radio or television receiver, a collection of scenery and props on a stage, to be ready for something, to adjust a device, fix a broken bone, mount a stone in jewellery, place crockery and cutlery on a table or the disappearance of the sun due to the earth's rotation.

Answer: arithmetic, algebra and geometry

Arithmetic, algebra and geometry are branches of mathematics, which is commonly abbreviated to 'math' in US English, but keeps its plural form as 'maths' in British English.

The Old English word 'gemoecca' meaning a mate or companion gives us the sporting competition and the identical object. The tipped stick of wood for starting a fire is derived from the Old French word 'meche' which is probably from the Latin 'myxa' - a spout of a lamp, which came to mean a lamp wick.

Answer: cooked potato served with melted cheese

Cooked potato served with melted cheese describes the Swiss dish of raclette.

The oval-framed stringed object for hitting a ball in games such as tennis or squash takes its name from the French word 'raquette' and can also be spelled 'racquet'. Racket as a fraudulent scheme or a loud noise is thought to be a sixteenth century word and sounds like clattering.

Answer: captured

To be captured is to be caught.

It is now quite archaic to refer to courting someone with a view to marriage. A court is also used to refer to the place where the judge and jury meet to hear legal cases. Another meaning, especially at the University of Cambridge, is a grassy quadrangle surrounded by buildings. Court is also used to refer to the people in attendance on a sovereign. The word 'court' comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin 'cohors' meaning 'yard or retinue'.

Answer: cry noisily

To cry noisily is to bawl.

As a formal dance, ball comes from the French 'bal', meaning dance. The Old Norse word 'bollr', a ball, gives us the meaning of being round.

Answer: tub containing water for washing the whole body

The tub containing water for washing the whole body is a bath.

The implement for hitting a ball takes its name from the Old English 'batt' meaning 'club, stick or staff', from the Old French 'battre' - to strike. The word for a flying mammal comes from the Middle English 'bakke'. To bat meaning to flutter the eyelashes is from the nineteenth century, and comes from an American dialect word meaning to wink or blink.

Answer: open space near a town in India

Maiden comes from the Old English 'maegden', which comes from a Germanic diminutive for a word meaning maid or virgin. Maiden is also used to describe a woman's surname, or last name, before she married.

Answer: large jug

A large jug is a pitcher.

Pitch can also be used to describe how high or low a musical note is, the steepness of a slope, to refer to sales patter, as a place where a street vendor operates, or to erect a tent. As tar, pitch comes from the Old English 'pic', which is possibly from the same root as pine (the tree). The other meanings come from the Old English 'picung', which is related to prick.

Answer: sports shoe

A sports shoe is a trainer.

Train comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin 'trahere' meaning to pull. It can also be used as a word to direct a plant to grow in a particular direction, or for a number of animals or vehicles following each other in a line.