Sources of English: Latin Quiz | English

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Especially from the fields of activity in which the Romans were superior, the Anglo-Saxon tribes took over words to describe what to them were innovations. Such new terms were "calx", "tegula", "mortarium", and "moneta". Which of them was the only one that did NOT refer to a building material, but to their system of currency?

Answer: moneta

"Calx" was chalk, "tegula" a tile, "puteus" a pit or well, and "moneta" was a place where metal coins were produced, a mint.

2. The Romans were great builders of roads and of military fortifications. One of the words we borrowed from them was wall, from "vallum". What was the original meaning of "vallum"?

Answer: palisade

"Vallis" is Latin for valley but is unrelated to "vallum" which refers to the "valli" or stakes a palisade was made of. Later "vallum" became the word for the whole defensive structure: "palisade-cum-ditch". In some cases the palisade became a stone wall rather than just a wooden structure.

3. The Anglo-Saxons had been in contact with Roman civilisation long before they crossed over to the British Isles. They had picked up various words from 'kitchen Latin' such as 'discus', which was not only what the 'discobolos' (disc-thrower) used, but also the flat round plate from which the Romans ate. The word is now either the vessel or the food served in it. In other words the disc became modern English ______?

Answer: dish

In German, 'dish' developed to the word for the table on which you put the dish(es): Tisch. Also Dutch has an archaic 'dis', which means the table with the food on it and the Dutch language still has 'opdissen' in the sense of 'serving your audience a savoury joke, story etc.' Just as the 'works of the Lord', the ways of language are amazing indeed. Maybe the Lord is at work in language.

After all 'In the beginning was the Word ...'

4. The Anglo-Saxons knew the pig, which in Latin was 'sus', adjective 'suinus'. From 'suinus' they derived swine. What word did they directly derive from a much more Mediterranean product, 'vinum'?

Answer: wine

The old Latin v-root is still visible in vineyard, vinification, vintner. Between a v and a w there is not that much difference and the German w as in Wasser is actually slightly in between English v and English w.

5. Many foodstuffs such as fruits, nuts and vegetables were imported into the cooking style of the Anglo-Saxons via contact with the Romans. Which of these was a NUT?

Answer: castanea

'Cerasca' was the cherry, 'cerise' in French. The hard c of 'cerasca' can still be found in the Dutch words 'kers' (sweet cherry) and 'kriek' (sour cherry). Those who visit Belgium will find the word 'kriek' in the popular Brussels 'kriekbier'.
'Pisa' (plural of 'pisum') are the famous British 'green peas', the watery colour of which can hardly be imitated in less rainy climates.
'Prunum' is either the plum or the dried version of it: the prune.
'Castanea' (French: 'chataigne', Dutch: 'kastanje', is the English chestnut. 'Castanea' is, of course, related to Spanish 'castaneta', designating a small concave, nut-like shell with which a rattling noise can be produced. How the word came to mean a joke that falls flat ... is another story altogether.

6. 'Caseum' and 'butyrum' were culinary terms. So were 'furca' and 'cerefolium'. Which of them did NOT refer to a dairy-product, vegetable or herb, but to a kitchen utensil?

Answer: furca

'Cerefolium' is English chervil. Related to French 'cerfeuil', Dutch 'kervel', Italian 'cerfoglio', Greek 'khairephullon'.
'Caseum' can still be recognized as the root element in casein, a protein found in milk and the basis for cheese.
'Butyrum' is the fatty substance obtained from cream, or more simply, butter.
'Furca' is a fork. Originally it was a large fork used by cooks to handle chunks of meat. Later its smaller version was an item of cutlery used by individual guests at a meal.

7. It would be quite wrong to think the Anglo-Saxons only took over materialistic terms. Especially when they had settled in Britain and had been Christianised, a number of Church Latin terms were taken over. The church (Greek 'kyrika') put 'episcopoi' (inspectors) at the head of its regional entities. What is the modern word for such an 'epi-scopos' (controller)?

Answer: bishop

The word episcopal, meaning governed by one or more bishops, comes from these 'episcopoi'. 'Decani' were at the head of ten parishes and are the present-day deans. Many Church Latin words were literally translated as Anglo-Saxon compound structures such as 'omni-potens' which became all-mighty.

In the Renaissance the Latin 'omnipotens' was re-borrowed and this time it was not 'anglicised', but used directly as omnipotent.

8. The Church brought the 'eu-angellion' or 'good news' (transliterated in Latin as "evangelium"). Those 'good tidings' were originally called 'god-spell', or 'good prophecy, good message for the future'. What is the word that derived from God-spell?

Answer: Gospel

Diocese is another such Church Latin term. The original meaning was the residential area that is managed by a bishop. From 'di-oikein': keep house; manage.

9. Skipping the influence of French that started with the Battle of Hastings, we find more Latin borrowings during the Renaissance often inspired by Greek. Especially in scholarly and scientific language new words were coined. What was, for instance, the Latin-Greek word created by scholars to describe 'a general course of instruction' or 'the full circle of knowledge children had to learn'?

Answer: encyclopedia

'Kuklos' meant circle. An en-cyclo-pedia was a round-up of all existing knowledge. There are traces of the term in the works of the Latin authors Quintilian and Pliny, but the term became popular especially among sixteenth century humanists.
Omniscience meant knowing everything. Comprehension: grasping things. Dictionary was a book treating the words of a language or an author and also their forms and uses. The term dictionary existed already before the Renaissance, occurring for first time in English in the writings of Johannes de Garlandia in 1225.

10. It's often difficult to distinguish between a word that derives from Latin and another that derives from either Italian, Spanish or French -- all languages derived from Latin. The words are often very close in appearance. Which of these is the only word of truly Latin origin?

Answer: peninsula

Fresco is Italian for painting al fresco (while the masonry is still freshly plastered); the opposite would be al secco.
Sonnet is from Italian 'sonetto' itself from 'suono' sound - a well-sounding poem.
Belvedere: originally a turret on a building commanding a beautiful ('bel') view. The French equivalent was 'belvoir' as in some English proper names. Italian 'vedere' derives from Latin videre of which the first person singular 'video' gave us the modern videocassette.
Peninsula is the Latin formation created in the Renaissance for a near-island. 'Pene' is almost. 'Insula' is island. The Italian phrase 'Isola Bella' shows how the 'N' of insula (German 'insel') gets lost in Italian just as in the English isle.

Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Sources of English: Latin Trivia Quiz

Already when still living on the Continent the Anglo-Saxon tribes had picked up many words from their Roman enemies. Then came Church Latin. The Norman Conquest added large portions of French. But then there was the Renaissance. See for yourself.

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