Climbing the Tower of Babel, 6th Floor Quiz

Answer: bathroom

Bainugela is the Basque word for bathroom, as is badkamer in Dutch, vannituba in Estonian, Badezimmer in German, bagno in Italian, banheiro in Portuguese and yokugezela in Zulu. The English noun/adjective bathroom is compounded from bath and room meaning a room where a toilet is located. It is interestingly not necessarily a room where a shower is located (e.g. shower room) nor does it necessarily mean that one can bathe there. Euphemisms are like that.

Answer: egg

Jaje is the Bosnian word for egg, as is vejce in Czech, muna in Finnish, tojás in Hungarian, uovo in Italian and huevo in Spanish. Think: huevos rancheros. The modern English word egg entered English from the Old Norse in the 14th Century. It won out over other words derived from the Latin ovum. The description of a person as a "bad egg" dates only from the mid-19th Century.

Answer: flag

Vlag is the Dutch word for a flag, as is drapeau in French, bandiera in Italian, karogs in Latvian, pavilion in Romanian and bayraq in Azerbaijani. The English noun meaning a symbolic pennant or ensign made of cloth and flown of a staff probably derives from an earlier verb meaning to flap about in the air, but this origin is uncertain.

The German noun is Flagge, the Danish is flag, the Swedish is flagg. The Middle English verb was flakken; the Old Norse was flaka.

Answer: feather

Pena means feather in Portuguese and Galician, as does pero in Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian, fjer in Danish, veer in Dutch, piuma in Italian and pluma in Spanish. The Portuguese expression "não vale a pena" means that something is worthless, not worth the effort, not worthwhile. Feather entered Old English (feder) from the Proto-Germanic languages. Consider the modern German Feder. "A feather in one's cap" first appears in 1734; the reference is obscure.

Answer: smile

The Spanish word sonreír means smile, as does sorrir in Portuguese, sorriso in Italian, mosoly in Hungarian, glimlach in Dutch and aibtisama in Arabic. The English word smile clearly derives from the Proto-German and not from the Latin. The Middle Low German was smilen. The Latin was subridere.

Answer: judge

Rechter is the Dutch word for judge, as is juge in French, Richter in German, dikastís in Greek, giudice in Italian, juiz in Portuguese, juez in Spanish and woweruza in Chichewa. Since the 13th or 14th Century, English has used some form of the Old French juge and the Latin iudex to describe making judgement and the person who decides. Related terms are adjudge, hoosegow, judgment, judicatory, just and prejudice.

Answer: Christmas

Jul is the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian word for Christmas, as is Weihnachten in German, Natale in Italian, Natal in Portuguese, Navidad in Spanish and eid almilad in Arabic. The Modern English Christmas is a compound word produced from Christ and mass. The Late Old English was Cristes mæsse; the Middle English Cristenmesse. The Romance examples are primarily derived from words meaning birth.

Answer: signature

Potpis is both the Bosnian and the Croation word for signature, as podpis is in Czech, Polish, Slovak and Slovenian), handtekening is in Dutch, Unterschrift is in German, firma is in Italian, Maltese and Spanish, and assinatura is in Portuguese. The original Latin verb related to signature meant to mark with a stamp. Only later did it change to mean one's own name in one's own handwriting (ca. 1570).

Answer: donkey

Esel is the German, Dutch and Norwegian word for donkey as is asal in Irish, osel in Slovenian and Russian, osiol in Polish, eesel in Estonian and asinus in Latin. The English word donkey was likely a slang term, used in place of ass, which lost usage to the slang noun.

There is no definitive etymology for donkey but it may have derived from dun, a term meaning dull gray-brown. The scientific name for donkeys is Equus africanus asinus which follows the Latin.

Answer: snow

Neu is the Catalan word for snow, as is sne in Danish, lumi in Estonian and Finnish, neige in French, neve in Galician and Italian and Portuguese and sneg in Slovenian. The Old English snaw derives from many Proto-Germanic sources: snaw, snaiwaz, sneo, sne, snee, sneeuw, Schnee, snjor, snaiws. The Sanskrit source, snihyati, means literally "he gets wet."