Climbing the Tower of Babel, 5th Floor Quiz

Answer: Pencil

Olovka is the Croatian word for pencil, as is blyant in Danish, potlood in Dutch, crayon in French, lápiz in Spanish and blyertspenna in Swedish. Long before the English invented the graphite pencil in the 16th Century, the French term pincel described an artist's brush so fine that it could be used to write.

The term meant little tail which was appropriate to a tiny bunch of fine hairs used for writing. The derogatory term "pencil pusher" arose in 1881 to describe those who did not do manual labour but rather worked in offices.

Answer: Parrot

Papegaai is the Dutch word for parrot, as it perroquet in French, Papagei in German, papuga in Polish, loro in Spanish and jako in Haitian Creole. Parrots are sometimes called psittacines because they are of the order Psittaciformes. The English word parrot appears in the early 16th Century but is of disputed origin, possibly from a Middle French tropical dialect which used the word perrot.

Answer: Beach

Strand is the German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for beach, as is ranta in Finnish, plage in French, spiaggia in Italian, praia in Portuguese, and playa in Spanish. The source of the English word beach is likely a reference to the pebbles which are worn round and smooth by the action of the waves at a seashore.

There remain dialectical uses in Sussex and Kent which still mean precisely that. The compound "beach bum" is a much later (1950s) combination.

Answer: Pickle

Escabetx is the Catalan word for pickle, as is turshi in Albanian, lage in Danish, augurk in Dutch, marineerima in Estonian, cornichon in French and salmoura in Portuguese. Compare the English gherkin with the 16th Century Dutch augurken. The English pickle probably descends from the Middle Dutch pekel meaning to place in a brine.

The use of pickled to describe being drunk entered American English around 1900.

Answer: Chair

Stolica is the Bosnian word for chair, as is stoel in Dutch, chaise in French, Stuhl in German, sedia in Italian, cadeira in Portuguese, silla in Spanish and kiti in Swahili. The original sense of the Old French chaiere was of a throne (13th Century, political or ecclesiastical) but it became more ordinary when it entered English in the 16th Century.

Answer: Cherry

Kirss is the Estonian word for cherry, as is cerise in French, Kirsche in German, kirsis in Latvian, cereja in Portuguese and cereza in Spanish. Kirschwasser is a German brandy made of morello cherries. Clafoutis aux Cerises is a classic French baked dessert made with cherries.

The Modern English cherry derives from the Anglo-French cherise which derived in turn from the Latin ceresia and the late Greek kerasian.

Answer: Germany

Alemania is the Spanish word for Germany, as is Alemanya in Catalan and Filipino, Alemanha in Portuguese, Tyskland in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Duitsland in Dutch and Afrikaans, and Nemecko in Slovak and Czech. The English German derives from the Latin Germanus (used by Julius Caesar to refer to tribes in northeastern Gaul).

Other Roman writers referred to the German people as Teutoni. Both William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe use Almain for German.

Answer: Fork

Pirun is the Albanian noun meaning fork, as is forquilla in Catalan, vidlice in Czech, gaffel in Danish, haarukka in Finnish, villa in Hungarian and tenedor in Spanish. The Modern English word fork descends from the Old English forca; compare the Old Frisian forke, the Dutch vork, the Old Norse forkr and the Danish furca.

The probable Latin parent is furca (from which we get bifurcated).

Answer: Doorknob

Picaporta is Catalan for doorknob, as is ovennuppi in Finnish, poignée de porte in French, maniglia in Italian, kljuka in Slovenian and pomo in Galician. Doorknob is a recent addition to Modern English, first appearing the in the middle 1800s. The Modern English door is very old, from the Old English duru; knob is newer, from the Middle English knobbe.

Answer: Flour

Harina means flour in both Spanish and Filipino, as does farina in both Catalan and Italian, mel in both Danish and Norwegian, farine in French, Mehl in German, farinha in Portuguese and meel in Afrikaans. The English word flour is closely connected with its homophone flower.

The Old French flor meant both: a blossom and finely-ground grain. A miller's helper was known as a flour-knave from around 1300; no one knows what made him a knave?