- quiz
- 1847, quies, perhaps from L. qui es? "who are you?," first question in oral exams in L. in old-time grammar schools. Spelling quiz first recorded 1886, though it was in use as a noun from 1867, perhaps from apparently unrelated slang word quiz meaning "odd person" (1782, source of quizzical). The anecdote that credits this word to a bet by the Dublin theater-manager Daly that he could coin a word is regarded by authorities as "doubtful" and the first record of it appears to be in 1836 (in Smart's "Walker Remodelled"; the story is omitted in the edition of 1840).