People Who Became Words - 1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sandwich

Legend has it that the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), John Montagu, was so obsessed with gambling that he would not even get up from the gambling table for lunch. So a servant devised a snack, placing meat and cheese between two slices of bread.

The Earl reportedly liked the dish so much that he had it daily and the word sandwich was added to the dictionary. As a noun, it refers to a food placed between two slices and as a verb it refers to getting placed or pressed between two objects. The word pizza is said to have originated from a Latin word pinsa (flattened bread) and burger is said to have been named after the town of Hamburg.

The word cake is said to have originated from a Viking word kaka.

Answer: Fahrenheit

A German Physicist named Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invented a thermometer that used mercury in it. The temperature scale that he discovered was named after him. Even after the introduction of the Celsius scale, Fahrenheit continues to be used worldwide especially to measure body temperature.

Interestingly, normal body temperature on the original scale made by Fahrenheit was 96 degrees. Later the scale was redefined to make it as 98.6 degrees. The Kelvin and Celsius scales are also temperatures, named after Lord Kelvin and Anders Celsius; however, they did not invent the thermometer that used mercury.

Answer: A French navigator

A tough one! Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811) was a French navigator who was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe (1766-1769). He was also a military commander. The colourful bougainvillea plant was reportedly first observed by Louis Antoine who first saw the plant during his travels in Brazil. This ornamental plant is thus named after the French admiral.

Answer: Mausoleum

The word mausoleum is derived from the name of the King of Caria, Mausollus, whose tomb was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Reportedly after the death of the King, his wife Artemis constructed a grand monument over his tomb. A mausoleum is usually a monument that has the burial chamber of deceased persons.

The other words, though similar in meaning, are not derived from anyone's name.

Answer: From a Texas cattleman who refused to brand his cattle

The word "maverick" refers to a person with independent thought or action, or a non-conformist. The origin of the word came in the 1840s when a Texas cattleman named Samuel Maverick (1803-1870) refused to brand his cattle. The word maverick thus meant an animal without an owner's mark. A county in Texas is also named after Samuel Maverick.

Answer: Chauvinism

Nicolas Chauvin was supposedly a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army who was so blindly devoted to his master that he made a laughing stock of himself. The word Chauvinism means 'an extreme unreasonable allegiance to a cause, community, country, etc'.

The word patriotism is different in meaning and is plain devotion to country. The words Fascism and Nazism originated much later, in the 1920s/1930s.

Answer: Mesmerism

Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) was a German physicist who propounded a theory called Mesmerism. This theory stated that a vital magnetic force existed that could be used to influence others for good or for bad. This theory named after him was called mesmerism. Hypnosis was derived from mesmerism by a Scot named James Braid. Galvanism was propounded by an Italian, Luigi Galvini, who called it animal electricity.

Answer: Sadism

Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a French nobleman who spent a large part of his life in jail and in mental asylums. The word sadism refers to pleasure or gratification (sexual and non-sexual) obtained by inflicting pain on others.

The word masochism has a connected meaning but is derived from the name of an Austrian author Leopold Masoch, because of the perversions in his writing.

Answer: Quixotic

The word quixotic is derived from Don Quixote, the fictional hero of a novel by Cervantes. Quixote was a self-styled knight who imagined lonely inns to be castles and windmills to be fearsome giants and fought against them. The term Quixote is used to denote someone who has an unrealistic and naive attitude to the world, who hopes to change things for the better. James Stewart's character in the movie 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington' might well be called quixotic.

The other words are not derived from any person's name.

Answer: Boycott

The word boycott means 'to abstain from buying, using or dealing with as an expression of protest'. An English estate agent named Charles Boycott used to harass his tenants and threatened to evict them. The tenants decided not to resort to violent protests, instead they decided to isolate him and not deal with him. Workers stopped working for him, businessmen stopped dealing with him and even the postman stopped delivering mail to him.

This form of protest is thus called boycotting.