Climbing the Tower of Babel, 3rd Floor Quiz

Answer: Flower

Bloem is the Dutch word for a flower, as kukka is in Finnish, fiore in Italian, zieds in Latvian, kwiat in Polish, flor in both Spanish and Portuguese. The Old French flor crossed into English around 1200. Compare to the Modern French fleur and the Latin florem. Flower is also the skunk in Walt Disney's 1942 motion picture "Bambi".

Answer: Birthday

Ulang tahun in Indonesian means birthday, as does urtebetetzea in Basque, narozeniny in Czech, verjaardag in Dutch, Geburtstag in German, gimimo diena in Lithuanian, urodziny in Polish and verjaarsdag in Afrikaans. The Modern English birthday is a compound noun constructed in the late 14th Century from words meaning birth and day.

The Old English is byrddæg. Another similar compound noun, birthnight, appears in around 1620.

Answer: Octopus

The Basque word olagarro means octopus, as does hobotnica in Bosnian, mustekala in Finnish, poulpe in French, Krake in German, polpo in Italian, and polvo in Portuguese. The legendary sea monster, the kraken, derives its name from the Norwegian and German languages; it is a giant octopus-like creature which seizes ships and sailors and drags them to the bottom of the sea.

Answer: Juice

Sok is the Bosnian term for juice, as is sap in Dutch, jus in French, safa in Icelandic, succo in Italian and jugo in Spanish. The English noun juice descended from the Old French jus which descended from the Latin ius which could mean juice but also broth or soup. Relatives are the Sanskrit yus and the Old Church Slavonic jucha. The etymology of American pop singer Juice Newton's first name is unknown.

Answer: Screwdriver

Schroevedraaier is the Dutch word for screwdriver, as is tournevis in French, Schraubendreher in German, katsavídi in Greek, cacciavite in Italian, destornillador in Spanish and bisibisi in Swahili. Since about 1779, screwdriver (with or without an hyphen) is a compound noun describing a tool used to turn/drive screws.

Its alternative meaning of an alcoholic drink made with vodka and orange juice dates from about 1956 and is of highly disputed origin.

Answer: Tooth

Zub is the Czech noun for tooth, as is tand in Dutch, hammas in Estonian, Zahn in German, dente in Italian and snien in Maltese. The English words dentist, dental, dentifrice, dentition and the like all derive from the Middle French dental or the Medieval Latin dentalis which share a common beginning in the Latin dens which means tooth. The Estonian hammas is in no way connected to the Arabic hamas which is an acronym for the arakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement.

Answer: Children

Bambini is the Italian word for children, as is barn in Norwegian, deti in Slovak, nens in Catalan, lapsed in Estonian, Kinder in German and gyermekek in Hungarian. Children is the plural of the Modern English child. Child refers to any young person before puberty.

It descends from the Old English where it had a narrower meaning, referring to recently-born children. The Old Swedish kulder means litter which Modern English would reserve for non-humans.

Answer: Pancake

Pannenkoek means pancake in Dutch, as does Pfannkuchen in German, blynas in Lithuanian, blin in Russian and Uzbek, crepe in Spanish and dipanekuku in Sesotho. The modern pancake is also described as a crepe, a flapjack, a johnny cake, a hotcake and a griddle cake. Pancake is a compound noun from the 15th Century of pan and cake.

Answer: Juggler

The noun malabarista means juggler in Spanish, Basque, Catalan, Cebuano, Galician and Portuguese. Manipulim means juggler in Albanian as does zongler in Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovask and Slovenian, jongleur in Dutch, French, German, and tachydaktylourgós in Greek.

The original sensed of the words which evolved into the Modern English juggler was more about jesting and joking, on the one hand, and being a magician or conjurer, on the other. The Old English iugulere and geogelere derived Old French jogleor, which derived from the Latin ioculatorem.

The meanings involving dexterity date from around 1600.

Answer: River

Lumi means river in Albanian, as does flod in Danish, fleuve in French, Fluss in German, abhainn in Irish, rzeka in Polish and awa in Maori. The Danish flod is related to the English flood. The French fleuve is related to the English fluvial. The Maori noun awa may refer to a river, a canal, a gorge, a glacier or to menstrual flow.