Chicken Meet Egg Trivia Quiz

Answer: The fruit

The fruit was called an "orange" in English by the late 1300s, while "orange" did not become an English color term until the early 1500s. Before that, English speakers might describe similar shades with words such as "saffron" or "citrine." The color was therefore named directly for the familiar fruit, not the other way around.

Answer: The young goat

"Kid" originally meant the young of a goat and is recorded with that meaning around 1200, probably entering English from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse "kiš." Its use for a human child came several centuries later, possibly appearing by the late 1500s and certainly by the 1600s, before becoming common informal English in the 1800s.

In other words, calling a child a "kid" began as an extension of the animal term, much as other names for young animals can be applied affectionately to children.

Answer: The church official

The ecclesiastical "cardinal" is the older meaning, recorded in English by the early 1100s. When English speakers encountered the North American songbird, they called it a "cardinal" because the male's brilliant red plumage reminded them of the red robes associated with Roman Catholic cardinals; the bird name is recorded from the 1670s. So the official did not get his title from the bird: the bird was named after the official's distinctive clothing.

Answer: The body part

This relationship goes back beyond English to Latin. Latin "palma" originally meant the palm of the hand, which was later applied to the palm tree because its spreading leaves were thought to resemble an open hand and fingers.

Interestingly, English borrowed the tree name very early, with "palm tree" appearing in Old English, while "palm" entered the language from Old French separately later (meaning the body part word didn't come from the tree). So although the tree sense appeared first in English, the tree was ultimately named from the older anatomical meaning in Latin.

Answer: The weaponry

"Battery" developed a military meaning from the idea of battering or bombardment and was being used for a group of artillery pieces by the 1500s. In the 1740s, Benjamin Franklin applied "battery" to an arrangement of connected Leyden jars used in electrical experiments.

The analogy is generally understood to be with a group of artillery pieces acting together and producing powerful discharges, although the precise basis of Franklin's metaphor is probable rather than certain.

Answer: The food

"Toast" first referred to bread browned by heat, with the noun recorded in the early 1400s. Pieces of toasted bread, often spiced, were once put into wine or ale, and by the late 1600s "toast" had acquired its drinking sense. The usual explanation is that an admired person (often a celebrated woman) was figuratively compared to the toast that added flavor or distinction to the drink, eventually producing our expressions "propose a toast" and "drink a toast." The exact historical transition is not completely certain, but the drinking sense developed from the bread sense.

Answer: The tool

"Rubber" originally meant simply something used for rubbing, such as a brush or cloth, and was used in that sense centuries before the elastic material received the name. Natural caoutchouc was introduced to Europe in the 1700s, and in 1770 Joseph Priestley noted its usefulness for rubbing out pencil marks. The substance consequently became known in English as "India rubber," and by the late 1700s this had been shortened to simply "rubber."

The naming eventually came full circle: trees that produced the material became known as "rubber trees." Thus, the tree did not give rubber its name; rather, the tree was named for a material whose English name ultimately came from the verb "rub."

Answer: The ordinal number

The time unit ultimately comes from "second" meaning "second in order." Medieval scholars divided an hour into sixty "partes minutae primae," or "first small parts," which became our minutes. They then divided those parts by sixty again; these were "partes minutae secundae," or "second small parts." The shortened "second" therefore refers to the second division of the hour, not simply to an independently named time unit.

Answer: The fun activity

The older meaning of "game" concerned enjoyment, amusement, sport, or a contest; Old English "gamen" meant things such as "joy," "fun," and "amusement." Chess, which became established in England during the Middle Ages, was therefore considered a "game" well before the word was applied to hunted animals. Hunting likewise became a kind of "game" or sport, and by around 1300 the word had transferred from the activity to the wild animals pursued in that activity. Thus "game animals" are "game" because they were the quarry of the sport of hunting.

Answer: The animal

"Boa" had been the name of a large snake for centuries; English borrowed the word from Latin, where "boa" was the name of a large serpent mentioned by Pliny. In the 1800s, the same word was applied to the long fur or feather wrap worn around the neck and shoulders because it resembled a large snake draped around a person. The scarf sense is recorded from 1836, long after the snake sense.