Ship of Fools: A quiz for etymology geeks

Thread: A quiz for etymology geeks Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

If I'm honest, one of my reasons for posting this is that I got 20/20 ... [Yipee]

How well do you know the origins of English words? Take the quiz here.

Posted by Autenrieth Road (# 10509) on :

That was fun. 20/20 here too, because I know French. Sounds like a French word? Not Anglo-Saxon.

Attorney/lawyer puzzled me, and it was a happy accident that I got it right. Off to consult the OED for the etymology of those words.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

19/20. A sudden madness overcame me and I picked "faith" over "belief" when I know that "be-" is a common German prefix, and fides is a Latin word. Grrr.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

19/20. I got the cry/weep one mixed up.

I suspect it's pretty easy for a native English speaker to get most of these right. The more simple, childish, short or vulgar term--the everyday term--is always the Anglo-Saxon.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

17/20 [Hot and Hormonal]

Still, 85% can't be bad.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

I got 18/20, but I did know the others, I just failed to go with my instinct.

Most of the non-AS ones have french words with a similar origin, which makes it easier I think. I do think it is interesting how our language has developed, and how, despite having two words for things, we tend to use them differently, to mean subtly different things. Cry and Weep, for example, while having very similar meanings, are not interchangeable.

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :

19/20 but again being fairly francophone gives me a good clue for most of them.

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :

20/20. A combination of knowing a lot of the romance roots, knowing a few sounds that are unlikely to come from a romance root, and, when all else fails, guessing that lower register word as Anglo-Saxon.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

The fact that all non-Anlo-Saxon words are Romance makes it rather easy.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

20/20

I used to read the etymolgy charts in the back of my dictionary.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Kelly Alves: I used to read the etymolgy charts in the back of my dictionary.

It's alright, brave of you to confess that [Biased]

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

Well, with 16/20 I appear to be bottom of the heap right now.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

20/20 - like an Anglo-Saxon warrior'd be seen dead saying "odour" or "pensive".

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :

19/20, got caught by "belief" vs. "faith"

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

I got 19/20. I don't speak French or any other latin language, but I think most English speakers probably have some idea as to which words in English have reognizable cousins in those languages.

Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on :

I got caught by attorney / lawyer too. Apparently, law shares a common ancestor with lex / loi etc but is in fact a parallel development derived from the Nordic languages.

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

18/20 for me

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

16/20 - went for the shortest word nearly every time

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

20/20. Recent holiday in France may have helped.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

20/20 - from knowing the translations for most of those words in either French or German or both

Posted by Wm Dewy (# 16712) on :

20/20. Most were easy a couple were toss-ups.
Cry vs Weep? Not plain to me.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:
Kelly Alves: I used to read the etymolgy charts in the back of my dictionary.
It's alright, brave of you to confess that

I once made friends with a guy in school after confessing I read the dictionary for pleasure. " REALLY?? Me, too!"

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Wm Dewy:
20/20. Most were easy a couple were toss-ups.
Cry vs Weep? Not plain to me.

What popped in my head was the French " crier".

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :

My French is rusty enough that I'd forgotten that word. I think I'd recognize it when reading, but couldn't produce it. Now I think about it, I could have used the Spanish gritar to get the answer, as /g/ and /k/ very easily exchange (both being velar stops). But, I actually got it on the grounds that pretty much no romance word begins with a 'w,' whereas lots of Anglo-Saxon ones do.

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

20/20 probably because I saw the thread first. That's okay though - I'll take it.

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :

I got 9 (that's nine).
I also got confused & forgot what the alternative to Anglo-Saxon was. HAHAHA. Hey, you'll all be old someday, too, if you're lucky.

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :

19/20 - faith/belief.

Posted by MSHB (# 9228) on :

20/20 - I would happily read an etymological dictionary in the same way that most people would read a novel.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
... 20/20 here too, because I know French. Sounds like a French word? Not Anglo-Saxon.

That was my thinking too, except I've never actually learned French. We were given the initial option of French or German and for reasons best known to himself* my father persuaded me that German would be the better bet, so I ended up doing it for five years but didn't feel inclined to take up French when the opportunity arose.

I did Latin for a year, for which I'm eternally grateful, and living in Canada I've picked up a few French words by osmosis (mostly from food packaging [Big Grin]

), and used a process of elimination if the distinction wasn't immediately obvious.

* He was the county's director of education at the time and he knew all the teachers ... [Paranoid]

Posted by Alaric the Goth (# 511) on :

Twentig ut of twentig.

Posted by Alaric the Goth (# 511) on :

'Lawyer' might be late OE, as 'lagu' ('law') is a borrowing from Old Norse, I believe.

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
17/20

Still, 85% can't be bad.

Don't feel bad. We got the same score. And I think we got the same score on the Humanist quiz, as well. [Smile]

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by MSHB:
20/20 - I would happily read an etymological dictionary in the same way that most people would read a novel.

Paisano!

_____
*countryman!

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Srsly!

Posted by Autenrieth Road (# 10509) on :

Me too!

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:

quote:
Originally posted by Wm Dewy:
20/20. Most were easy a couple were toss-ups.
Cry vs Weep? Not plain to me.
What popped in my head was the French " crier".

Not a lot of French words start with "W".

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Too easy. That the alternative word had French or Latin roots was simple. If they had mixed it up and had alternatives which came from the old pre Saxon English, or used a Saxon derived word against a Norse derived one, that would have made things harder.

As the test stands, try saying both words in a French accent and then in a German accent. The one which sounds more German is the Anglo-Saxon.

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