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Quiz about So You Think Youre From France
Quiz about So You Think Youre From France

So You Think You're From France Quiz


Even if you put "le" in front of them and make them wear a beret, some words are no more French than warm beer. The French have given many words to the world but they have also borrowed a few. All words are in the "Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française".

A multiple-choice quiz by Snowman. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Snowman
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
326,302
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
2634
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: samak (4/10), Guest 24 (9/10), skatersarehott (6/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Our first word comes from Ireland via England. Named after a landowner in 19th century Ireland against whom non-coercive action was taken to protest against the exploitation of tenants, it could be described in French as "pour s'abstenir collectivement". What adaptation of an English word do the French use instead? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Our next word is of Italian origin, describing a form of graphical self-expression employed by US soldiers on tour, Parisian counter-revolutionaries and hip hop artists and stretching all the way from cave dwellers to Banksy. A long-winded Frenchman might describe it as "slogans jet-peints sur un mur" but the Académie accepts that the more succinct Italian word is better. Which word? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Although the Académie lists it as coming to the French language from Turkish, the original word is Arabic. However, Turkey is the country with which the foodstuff that the French might have called, "viande coupée en tranches d'une broche et placée dans un pain de pita avec de la salade", is most associated. However, that would make most shop signs far too long, so what Turkish word is used instead? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The French might call such a person "un admirateur enthousiaste" but why bother when the Spanish have already coined a word that sums up the concept of the ardent admirer in a neat one word package. What is that word? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Usually found alongside the word "running" in English, this original Malay word was used to describe a sudden frenetic burst of murderous violence after taking opium. It has a more softened meaning since the English language adopted it from the Portuguese word. This could be described in French as "pour courir autour dans une frénésie" but what Malay word do the Académie suggest is more effective? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The French may take little Xavier and petite Juliette to "un jour des expositions de l'équitation" where they could display their exquisite husbandry and handling of the equine beasts. However, that phrase hardly trips off the tongue. So, instead, the French have humbly borrowed a word that the English adapted from the Urdu language. In its original usage the Indians used it to describe a place where sporting events took place. What is that word? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Originally a noun meaning a replacement or substitute, its use as a branding upon low quality foodstuffs given to prisoners of war in Germany brought it to other languages as an adjective. In French it could be described as "de la qualité incertaine ou inférieure". What is the German word that the French use in its place? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Our next word is adapted from an original Chinese word and describes a particular gardening technique. Now most commonly associated with Japan, the full explanation in French, "petits arbustes qui ressemblent aux arbres, cultivés dans des pots," is somewhat lacking in brevity. What Japanese word does the Académie think works better? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. If you are French you most probably have mayo with your "frites" but in the anglophone world you are more likely to have a condiment which takes its name from the Malay word for fish sauce. The French might have called it "sauce tomate" or "sauce rouge" but instead they use what word, borrowed from English? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Our final word is one that has been applied to people as varied as the founder of the Sikh faith and your local IT specialist. Though it could have entered the French language in the form, "un guide intellectuel ou spirituel", instead the Académie have adopted an adaptation of a Sanskrit word, meaning one who has great knowledge. What word, that the "Dictionnaire" lists as coming from the Hindi language, is considered the mot juste? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Our first word comes from Ireland via England. Named after a landowner in 19th century Ireland against whom non-coercive action was taken to protest against the exploitation of tenants, it could be described in French as "pour s'abstenir collectivement". What adaptation of an English word do the French use instead?

Answer: Un boycot

'Pour s'abstenir collectivement' translates to English as "to abstain collectively". The verb to boycott, which the phrase describes, takes its name from Captain C.C. Boycott, the agent of the estates of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. In this role, Boycott had refused the pleas of tenants to reduce rents on the lands he managed and evicted those who complained. In response, the Irish Land League organised a collective action of ostracising Boycott, meaning that no-one would work or co-operate with him. This meant Boycott was unable to harvest his crops or communicate effectively with anyone.

The effectiveness of the prolonged action against him led to his name being used figuratively to explain similar actions elsewhere and its first usage was recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary as being in 1880, the year of the original Irish 'boycott'.

Embargo, which is "l'embargo" in French, comes from the Spanish verb "embargar" meaning "to impede" and initially referred to restrictions placed on commercial shipping.
Hooligan is "un voyou" in French.
A strike is "une grève".
2. Our next word is of Italian origin, describing a form of graphical self-expression employed by US soldiers on tour, Parisian counter-revolutionaries and hip hop artists and stretching all the way from cave dwellers to Banksy. A long-winded Frenchman might describe it as "slogans jet-peints sur un mur" but the Académie accepts that the more succinct Italian word is better. Which word?

Answer: Le graffiti

The phrase, "slogans jet-peints sur un mur" translates into English into "slogans spray-painted on a wall," and is one definition of graffiti given by the Oxford English Dictionary. The word comes directly from the Italian language, where it is said to derive from the words "graffiare", to scratch, and "graphire", to write. Both words, in turn, derive from the Latin, "graphium" meaning "stylus".

Although graffiti is listed in the "Dictionnaire", the French also use "le bombage" for "graffiti carried out in a public place". It is usually applied to more artistic graffiti, such as that produced by street artists such as Banksy, whereas "graffiti" also includes the less aesthetically pleasing efforts of taggers and sloganeers.

Fresco, which also comes from Italian and describes a water-colour painting on a wall, is "la fresque" in French.
A mural is "une peinture murale" in French.
The French for a sketch is "un croquis".
3. Although the Académie lists it as coming to the French language from Turkish, the original word is Arabic. However, Turkey is the country with which the foodstuff that the French might have called, "viande coupée en tranches d'une broche et placée dans un pain de pita avec de la salade", is most associated. However, that would make most shop signs far too long, so what Turkish word is used instead?

Answer: Le kébab

"Viande coupée en tranches d'une broche et placée dans un pain de pita avec de la salade" is a very long way of describing it but "Meat sliced from a spit and placed in pitta bread with salad" does sum up what a doner kebab is. There are, of course, many other types of kebab including the shish (on a skewer) and not all necessarily contain meat. The variety of kebabs reflects the wide range of countries in which it can be found across the Arab world and beyond. The word, according to the "Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories", is Arabic in origin although it is also claimed that it comes from a Persian word, having been invented by Iranian soldiers who cooked meat skewered onto their swords.

Meze is a collection of savoury dishes in Turkish cuisine (as well as other national cuisines). Kofta are balls of ground meat. Houmous is a dip made from chick peas, tahini and lemon juice.
4. The French might call such a person "un admirateur enthousiaste" but why bother when the Spanish have already coined a word that sums up the concept of the ardent admirer in a neat one word package. What is that word?

Answer: Un aficionado

"Un admirateur enthousiaste" translates to English as "an enthusiastic admirer". The original Spanish word "aficionado" referred particularly to a follower of bullfighting but its meaning was extrapolated to mean any "amateur" (in its original meaning of "a lover [of something]") over years of usage. The Spanish verb "aficionar" means "to engender affection".

The correct French term for a fanatic is "un fanatique".
"Un avocat" is an advocate. The word is an Old French word that derived from the Latin verb "advocare" meaning "to call to one's aid".
"Un disciple" is an Old French word (meaning disciple) which derives from the Latin for "to learn".
5. Usually found alongside the word "running" in English, this original Malay word was used to describe a sudden frenetic burst of murderous violence after taking opium. It has a more softened meaning since the English language adopted it from the Portuguese word. This could be described in French as "pour courir autour dans une frénésie" but what Malay word do the Académie suggest is more effective?

Answer: Amok

If you are running amok you could be said to be "running around in a frenzy" ("pour courir autour dans une frénésie"). The origins of the word come from a peculiar cultural phenomenon that the European colonial authorities encountered in the Malay peninsula in the late 17th century. It was first used to describe the sudden onset of sociopathic tendencies in Malay men after having taken opium. The frenzy would involve a man acquiring a weapon and killing, indiscriminately, anyone who crossed his path before, usually, killing himself.

The English word berserk comes from the Old Norse tales of warriors, known as beserkers, who fought in a frenzied manner.
Haywire is an American idiom meaning out of control.
The English slang word, loopy, means crazy or eccentric. Its origin is unknown. None of the three wrong answers has a direct translation in French.
6. The French may take little Xavier and petite Juliette to "un jour des expositions de l'équitation" where they could display their exquisite husbandry and handling of the equine beasts. However, that phrase hardly trips off the tongue. So, instead, the French have humbly borrowed a word that the English adapted from the Urdu language. In its original usage the Indians used it to describe a place where sporting events took place. What is that word?

Answer: Le gymkhana

The word gymkhana came into Urdu through a combination of the Hindi word for ball ("gemd") and the Persian word for house ("kanah"). The spelling of the word changed to the "gym-" prefix in association with the Latin-derived word "gymnasium" (which itself comes from the Greek, "gumnasion", meaning "to exercise naked").

"Un jour des expositions de l'équitation" means "a day of exhibitions of horsemanship".
The correct French word for the stadium is "le stade" and the arena translates into French as "l'arène".
7. Originally a noun meaning a replacement or substitute, its use as a branding upon low quality foodstuffs given to prisoners of war in Germany brought it to other languages as an adjective. In French it could be described as "de la qualité incertaine ou inférieure". What is the German word that the French use in its place?

Answer: Ersatz

The word "ersatz" has a more negative meaning as a foreign word than it does within the German language. In German, its meaning of "substitute" is neutral but its usage on packaging in which food was given to prisoners of war in World War I, means that its introduction into foreign consciousnesses was much less so. The naval blockade imposed upon Germany meant many staple items had to be produced with lesser quality ingredients. Such staples, such as tea, were packaged as "Substitute tea" or "Ersatztee", thereby associating "ersatz" with "inferior".

The French word for counterfeit is "contrefaçon".
"Synthétique" comes into the French language from a Greek word meaning "place together".
"Sham" is an English slang word, whose root is not known for certain but is possibly a contraction of the word "shame" that arose in northern England.
8. Our next word is adapted from an original Chinese word and describes a particular gardening technique. Now most commonly associated with Japan, the full explanation in French, "petits arbustes qui ressemblent aux arbres, cultivés dans des pots," is somewhat lacking in brevity. What Japanese word does the Académie think works better?

Answer: Bonzai

Bonzai, or bonsai as it is transliterated into English, derives from the original Chinese word, penzai. Both words can, roughly, be described as "petits arbustes qui ressemblent aux arbres, cultivés dans des pots" or "small plants that resemble trees, cultivated in pots". Since its introduction into the Japanese, the practice of bonsai has been refined. The essential difference between the two art forms is in the aesthetics; bonsai has more controlled, smaller shaped plants; penzai has a more natural, wilder look to it.

Banzai is a Japanese phrase that literally translates as "ten thousand years" but is meant to confer the same sentiment as the French "vive le roi" or the English, "long live the king".
Kabuki is a style of Japanese theatre.
Sensei is a Japanese word for a teacher or person of authority.
9. If you are French you most probably have mayo with your "frites" but in the anglophone world you are more likely to have a condiment which takes its name from the Malay word for fish sauce. The French might have called it "sauce tomate" or "sauce rouge" but instead they use what word, borrowed from English?

Answer: Le ketchup

Not all ketchups are made with tomatoes. In fact, it was more than 100 years after the coining of the word ketchup that the first tomato sauces that bore the name were to appear. However, the red sauce is the one that is, in modern times, synonymous with the word. The Malay word for a fish brine, "kechap", from which "ketchup" entered into the English language, is itself probably derived from the Chinese Amoy dialect.

Passata is an Italian word for tomato puree.
Salsa is a Spanish word meaning sauce, although its usage, outside of Spanish speaking countries, usually refers to a spicy tomato-based sauce.
Satay is a Malay word, although the peanut sauce that it describes is believed to be of Indonesian origin.
10. Our final word is one that has been applied to people as varied as the founder of the Sikh faith and your local IT specialist. Though it could have entered the French language in the form, "un guide intellectuel ou spirituel", instead the Académie have adopted an adaptation of a Sanskrit word, meaning one who has great knowledge. What word, that the "Dictionnaire" lists as coming from the Hindi language, is considered the mot juste?

Answer: Gourou

Constructed from the Sanskrit words for darkness, "gu", and light, "ru", the word "guru", as it is written in its English form, refers to one who, in the words of Guru Nanak, can "remove the darkness of ignorance within the heart" and replace it with the light of self-knowledge.

Its traditional meaning of "a spiritual or intellectual guide" ("un guide intellectuel ou spirituel"), has been broadened with common usage to refer to anyone who has expert knowledge in any given subject area.

Mentor and sage are two words that appear the same in French and English but both have travelled from French to English, having first come from Latin.
"Tuteur" translates to English as "tutor". It has come from Old French, with a slight spelling change, having also originated in Latin.
Source: Author Snowman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
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