Quiz
Encyclopedia
A quiz is a form of game
or mind sport
in which the players (as individuals or in teams) attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.
Quizzes are usually scored in points and many quizzes are designed to determine a winner from a group of participants - usually the participant with the highest score.
, a common accoutrement of British Regency dandies
. It later acquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.
The OED2 has a citation from 1847 where the word appears: "She com back and quiesed us", which could be a clue to its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin Qui es, meaning "Who are you?" American Heritage
says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question. In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive.
There is a well-known myth about the word "quiz", which says that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a group of street urchins to write the word "quiz", which was a nonsense word
, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning (since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test) and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket. However, there is no evidence to support the story, and the term was already in use before the alleged bet in 1791.
See also:
, Eric Hemelaers, Bart Permentier and Tom Trogh
.
, and some colleges in India
.
may be a series of multiple-choice questions about the respondent without right or wrong answers. The responses to these questions are tallied according to a key, and the result purports to reveal some quality of the respondent. This kind of "quiz" was originally popularized by women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan
. They have since become common on the internet
, where the result page typically includes code which can be added to a blog
entry to publicize the result. These postings are common on LiveJournal
.
There are also many online quizzes, many webmasters have quiz sections on their websites and forums, phpBB2 has one MOD (modification) which allows users to submit quizzes, this is the Ultimate Quiz MOD.
Most of the online quizzes are to be taken lightly. The results do not often reflect the true personality or relationship. They are also rarely psychometric
ally valid
. However, they may occasion reflection on the subject of the quiz and provide a springboard for a person to explore his or her emotions, beliefs, or actions.
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
or mind sport
Mind sport
A Mind Sport is a sport or a game of skill where the mentalcomponent is much more significant than the physical. The official bodies that use the term have over 500 million registered users.- History of the term :...
in which the players (as individuals or in teams) attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.
Quizzes are usually scored in points and many quizzes are designed to determine a winner from a group of participants - usually the participant with the highest score.
Etymology
The first appearance of the word is from 1784 and means an odd person. This sense survives today in the word "quizzical". It was also used in the term quizzing glassMonocle
A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing...
, a common accoutrement of British Regency dandies
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
. It later acquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.
The OED2 has a citation from 1847 where the word appears: "She com back and quiesed us", which could be a clue to its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin Qui es, meaning "Who are you?" American Heritage
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is an American dictionary of the English language published by Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969...
says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question. In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive.
There is a well-known myth about the word "quiz", which says that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a group of street urchins to write the word "quiz", which was a nonsense word
Nonsense word
A nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a logatome. Nonsense words are used in literature for poetic or humorous effect. Proper names of real or fictional entities are sometimes nonsense words.-See...
, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning (since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test) and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket. However, there is no evidence to support the story, and the term was already in use before the alleged bet in 1791.
As competitions
Quizzes may be held on a variety of subjects (general knowledge, 'pot luck') or subject-specific. The format of the quiz can also vary widely. Popularly known competition quizzes include- Pub quizPub quizA pub quiz is a quiz held in a public house. These events are also called Quiz Nights or Trivia Nights and may be held in other settings. Pub quizzes are still extremely popular and may attract people to a pub who are not found there on other days. The pub quiz is a modern example of a pub game...
zes - Team QuizbowlQuizbowlQuiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...
s - in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
:- Music for the Masses (quiz night)Music for the Masses (quiz night)Music for the Mission was a quiz night held annually in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia between 2003 and 2010. In 2007 it attracted 1,324 participants, making it at that time the largest single-venue quiz or trivia night ever held, according to Guinness World Records...
- Music for the Masses (quiz night)
- in BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
:- Belgian Style QuizzingQuizzing in BelgiumQuizzing in Belgium or Belgian Style Quizzing is the Belgian variant of the British Pub Quiz Nights or Quiz Bowls. The mind sport has a long tradition in Belgian culture and is a popular pastime. Similar to a Pub quiz or a Quiz Bowl, it's a team competition in which the team that answers the most...
- Belgian Style Quizzing
- in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
:- Reach for the TopReach for the TopReach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...
- Reach for the Top
- in IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
:- see Quizzing in IndiaQuizzing in IndiaQuizzing in India is quite popular, and has developed its own, unique flavour. Quizzing in India is different from American and British quizzing in that it is diverse, with different genres catering to different geographical regions, age groups, interests, etc....
, for a discussion on the specific evolution of the quizzing culture in IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- see Quizzing in India
- in LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
:- ProtmušisProtmušisthumb|right|The logo of Protmušis.Protmušis is a team quiz-type game that takes place in Vilnius, Lithuania. The organisers and participants of Protmušis are mainly students of various universities of Vilnius...
- Protmušis
- in the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
: - British Quizzing Championships Annual national tournament in Great Britain.
- University ChallengeUniversity ChallengeUniversity Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
(televised) - Schools' ChallengeSchools' ChallengeSchools' Challenge is the national general knowledge competition for schools in the United Kingdom. It uses the same basic rules as University Challenge, although it is affiliated with neither the game nor the television show....
- University Challenge
- in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
:- College BowlCollege BowlCollege Bowl was a format of college-level quizbowl run and operated by College Bowl Company, Incorporated. It had a format similar to the current NAQT format. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953, and aired on US television from 1959 to 1970...
- National Academic Quiz TournamentsNational Academic Quiz TournamentsNational Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quizbowl organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school, high school, and college levels.The format is a set...
- Academic Competition FederationAcademic Competition FederationACF is one of the major formats of collegiate quizbowl. The name refers to two related things:*The actual organization, founded as the Academic Competition Foundation in 1991, which changed its name to the Academic Competition Federation in 1997 and presently continues to run a national...
- College Bowl
- Individual Quiz Tournaments
- in multiple countries:
- World Quizzing Championships
- in the United Kingdom:
- MastermindMastermind (TV series)Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...
(televised)
- Mastermind
- Bait BaziBait BaziBait Bazi is a verbal game and a genre of Urdu poetry played by composing verses of Urdu poems. The game is common among Urdu speakers in Pakistan and India. It resembles the Malayalam Aksharaslokam and, more generally, the British Crambo....
poetic quiz in PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
- in multiple countries:
- Board games:
- Trivial PursuitTrivial PursuitTrivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
- BezzerwizzerBezzerwizzerBezzerwizzer is a trivia game combining trivia and tactics. The game was invented in 2006 by the Dane Jesper Bülow. The name "Bezzerwizzer" comes from the originally German term "Besserwisser", meaning "know-it-all"....
- Trivial Pursuit
- TV quizzes, also called quiz shows (Game showGame showA game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s TVTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
/RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
)- Quiz CallQuiz CallQuiz Call is a late night/early morning phone-in quiz TV show, produced by Ostrich Media for Five, Five USA and Fiver.- Launch :...
phone-in television show - Jeopardy!Jeopardy!Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
- Who Wants to be a Millionaire
- The Weakest LinkThe Weakest LinkThe Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...
- BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's MasterMind - Bait BaziBait BaziBait Bazi is a verbal game and a genre of Urdu poetry played by composing verses of Urdu poems. The game is common among Urdu speakers in Pakistan and India. It resembles the Malayalam Aksharaslokam and, more generally, the British Crambo....
poetic quiz
- Quiz Call
- Online quiz
- Blog Quiz
See also:
- BamboozleBamboozleBamboozle! was a quiz game featured on Channel 4 Teletext in the United Kingdom. It was originally part of Teletext's "Fun & Games" category, though the rest of the category had been discontinued for some years before Bamboozle! ended...
, a teletextTeletextTeletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
quiz on UK TVTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound... - Quiz leagueQuiz leagueA quiz league is an organization running quizzes on a home and away basis, usually in pubs. Like the pub quiz, it is chiefly a British phenomenon although the format has significant differences to a pub quiz due to the usual number of teams and the presence of individual questions.-Team format:Two...
- Quiz machineQuiz machineQuiz machine is a term used in the UK for commercial coin-operated video quiz games that offer cash prizes for winning performances. These machines are usually found sited in pubs, bars and other places of entertainment...
World record
The largest quiz, according to Guinness, was the "Quiz for Life", held at the Flanders Expo Halls in Ghent, Belgium, on 11 December 2010 with 2,280 participants. The winning team Café De Kastaar from Leuven was composed of Marnix Baes, Erik DeryckeErik Derycke (quiz player)
Erik Derycke is a Belgian quiz player best known for his success with the national team and his double gold at the European Quizzing Championships 2007 with his partner Tom Trogh.-Quiz:...
, Eric Hemelaers, Bart Permentier and Tom Trogh
Tom Trogh
Tom Trogh is a Belgian quiz player who has won several international titles with the national team of quizzing powerhouse Belgium. He has established himself as the third best player of his country behind Ronny Swiggers and Nico Pattyn...
.
In education
A quiz is usually a form of a student assessment, but often has fewer questions of lesser difficulty and requires less time for completion than a test. This use is typically found in the USA, CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and some colleges in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Other quizzes
Additionally, a personality quizPersonality quiz
A personality quiz is a series of questions that intends to reveal something about the person who answers them. The personality quiz, unlike a knowledge quiz, has no definite set of right or wrong answers...
may be a series of multiple-choice questions about the respondent without right or wrong answers. The responses to these questions are tallied according to a key, and the result purports to reveal some quality of the respondent. This kind of "quiz" was originally popularized by women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
. They have since become common on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, where the result page typically includes code which can be added to a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
entry to publicize the result. These postings are common on LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
.
There are also many online quizzes, many webmasters have quiz sections on their websites and forums, phpBB2 has one MOD (modification) which allows users to submit quizzes, this is the Ultimate Quiz MOD.
Most of the online quizzes are to be taken lightly. The results do not often reflect the true personality or relationship. They are also rarely psychometric
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
ally valid
Validity (statistics)
In science and statistics, validity has no single agreed definition but generally refers to the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world. The word "valid" is derived from the Latin validus, meaning strong...
. However, they may occasion reflection on the subject of the quiz and provide a springboard for a person to explore his or her emotions, beliefs, or actions.