Quiet! Silent Letters, Part 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: A

A. Aisle is usually a noun but can function as an adjective as well, eg 'aisle seat'. The word originally came from Latin 'ala', meaning wing, and from there to old French 'ele', and to late Middle English,'ele' or 'île'. There was a misunderstanding with 'isle' and 'aile' meaning wing which resulted in a spelling change.

Answer: D

D. Judge can function as both a noun and as a verb. As with most words that end in 'dge', the 'd' is silent; for example fudge, lodge, trudge, and budge. Its presence, however, is a clue that the preceding vowel has a short sound, with the use of -ge looking as if it might be a long vowel.

The word came from Latin 'jus', meaning judge, and 'dicere', meaning to say. It was adopted into Old French as 'juge' (noun) and 'juger' (verb). From there it came into English in the form we know today.

Answer: E

E. Clothes is a non-count noun coming from Middle English 'cloțes' meaning garments, the plural of cloth. It came from Old English 'clāth', meaning cloth or garment, and before that it came from Proto-Germanic word for garment, 'klaițą'. The word 'cloth' is derived from this to distinguish it from the word 'clothes'.

The 'e' in the word is silent but its presence both indicates that the 'th' sound is voiced and serves to differentiate between the words clothes, and cloths.

Answer: N

N. Solemn is an adjective. It comes from Latin 'sollennis', which has several meanings such as religious, formal, annual or ceremonial. Originally, the word referred to something performed with reverence or with proper ritual. The meaning evolved to include all activities conducted formally and sincerely.

The 'n' is silent because the 'mn' consonant cluster is difficult for English speakers to pronounce, but we kept the same spelling. Interestingly, in the related word 'solemnity', both the 'm' and 'n' are pronounced because the two letters are in different syllables.

Answer: I

I. Business is both a count and non-count noun. It comes from Old English,'bisignis' meaning 'anxiety'; the sense of 'being busy', and was used from Middle English to the 18C, however now we use to word 'busyness' for differentiate the two meanings. The sense of 'appointed tasks' comes from the late Middle English and from that stems the current meanings of the word.

The 'i' is silent because the sound was dropped over time to make the word easier to pronounce, but the spelling remained the same.

Answer: O

O. Double can be a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective. It originally comes from Proto-Indo- European, combining 'dwo' meaning two and '-plus' meaning more. From there it moved into Latin, 'duplus', meaning twofold, and from there into Old French, 'doble ', and then into English.

The 'o' is silent because the French spelling remained, while the pronunciation evolved into the word we use today.

Answer: M

M. Mnemonic is both an adjective and a noun. It comes from the Ancient Greek word, 'mnemonikos', describing something involving memmory. It is related to the word 'Mnemosyne', the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. The noun referring to 'mnemonic device' comes from 1858.

The 'm' is silent because the Greek 'mn' is difficult to pronounce for English speakers, but as is common in English, the spelling remained the same.

Answer: P

P. Pterodactyl is a noun. It was coined in the early 19C and comes from Greek, 'pteron' meaning 'wing' and 'dactulos' meaning 'finger', through Latin and then likely French. The 'p' is silent because of the consonant 'pt' cluster which was common in Ancient Greek. Due to the phonological rules of English preventing those sounds at the beginning of a word, the 'p' sound was dropped, but the spelling remained the same.

Answer: U

U. Tongue is a noun originally coming from Old English 'tunge', through Dutch, from German and Latin. The silent 'u' was influenced by French, which commonly has 'ue' at the end of words. The 'u' lost its sound as English spelling became standardized, resulting in the silent 'u', while keeping the same spelling.

Answer: Z

Z. Rendezvous is both a noun and a verb. It comes from 'rendez' meaning 'to present' and 'vous' meaning 'you'. Both the 'z' and 's' are silent due to the direct borrowing of the word from French. The 'z' indicates that the preceding 'e' is to be pronounced as a long 'a'. English kept the spelling and the pronunciation, resulting in silent letters.