Quiz

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Template:Wiktionary A quiz is a form of game or puzzle in which the players (as individuals or in teams), attempt to answer questions correctly.

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Etymology

The story of the word "quiz" goes that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a group of street urchins to write the word quiz, which was a nonsense word, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning--since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test--and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket.

It's a fun story. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence to support it and the term was in use prior to the alleged bet in 1791.

The first appearance of the word is from 1782 and means an odd person. This sense survives today in the word quizzical. It later aquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.

The OED2 has a cite from 1847 where the word appears: "She com back and quiesed us," which could be a clue to its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin Qui es, meaning "Who are you?" American Heritage says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question. In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive.


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As Competitions

Quizzes may be held on a variety of subjects (general knowledge, 'pot luck') or subject-specific. The format of the quiz can also vary widely. Popularly known competition quizzes include

See also:

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In Education

A quiz usually a form of student assessment, but often has fewer questions of lesser difficulty and requires less time for completion than a test. This use is usually only found in the USA and Canada.

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Other Quizzes

Additionally, a personality quiz may be a series of multiple-choice questions about the respondent without right or wrong answers. The responses to these questions are tallied according to a key, and the result purports to reveal some quality of the respondent. This kind of "quiz" was originally popularized by women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan. They have since become common on the internet, where the result page typically includes code which can be added to a blog entry to publicize the result. These postings are common on LiveJournal.

There are also many online quizzes, many webmasters have quiz sections on their websites and forums, phpBB2 has one MOD (Modification) which allows users to submit quizzes, this is the Ultimate Quiz MOD.

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External links

de:Quiz fr:Quiz it:Quiz mk:Квиз nl:Quiz ja:クイズ ru:Викторина fi:Tietokilpailu

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