10 Questions: Word Origins Multiple Choice Quiz | Humanities

Answer: Sri Lanka

The word derives from a Persian legend of the "Three Princes of Serendip", now Sri Lanka, and was coined by the author Horace Walpole in 1754. Horace had read about the story as a boy and was enthralled by the tales of miraculous coincidences experienced by the princes in their travels.

He thought it wise to come up with the word to reflect the spirit that characterised the Princes' adventures.

Answer: Arabic

This word is derived from the name "Geber", an 11th century Arabian alchemist. To avoid punishment from the authorities and ecclesiastics of the day he wrote in obscure, mystical jargon which was totally unintelligible to others.

Answer: Marijuana

The Assassins were an obscure sect of killers spread throughout Persia to Bangladesh who were addicted to marijuana or hash. The root word for it was "hashashin", or addicted to hash, which stemmed from their practise of inhaling marijuana before a kill to put themselves in a state of euphoria to make the job easier.

Answer: Yawn

The word is derived from the Greek "chasma". It originally referred to the "yawning abyss" that was thought to be beyond the universe.

Answer: True

The Chinese invented ke-tsiap--a concoction of pickled fish and spices (but no tomatoes)--in the 1690s. By the early 1700s its popularity had spread to Malaysia, where British explorers first encountered it. By 1740 the sauce--renamed "ketchup"--was an English staple, and it was becoming popular in the American colonies. Tomato ketchup wasn't invented until the 1790s, when New England colonists first mixed tomatoes into the sauce.

It took so long to add tomatoes to the sauce because, for most of the 18th century, people had assumed that they were poisonous, as the tomato is a close relative of the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.

Answer: Slavs

After large parts of Slavonia (which corresponds roughly to Croatia as well as portions of surrounding countries) were subjugated by the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, a Slav became synonymous with someone who lived in servitude.

Answer: Date

The original word is "Tamar Hindi", which meant Indian dates. The word came into English from Arabic, but was corrupted into the present tamarind.

Answer: Malay

The original word in Malay is "mengamuk", which referred to someone who was angry, in a rage or is sulking. The English used only the last two syllables of the word, hence "amok".

Answer: Five

"Panca" is "five" in Sanskrit, and in "punch" it refers to the five ingredients that go into it: sugar, lemon juice, beer, pure alchohol and a bitter aperitif.

Answer: Testicle

The early Americans regarded the avocado as an aphrodisiac, which may be due to its shape, and since the testicle signified virility, ahuacatl came to be used as the name of the fruit. The Spanish conquistadores corrupted the name to "aguacate", and was later accepted into English as "avocado".