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Etymologies

Which languages are the following words derived from?
Many words are derived from more than one language (eg. from Latin via French). I have tried to limit the choices so that only one option is correct for each word. In most cases we are looking for the direct etymology.
Etymologies according to collinsdictionary.com
Quiz by JonOfKent
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Last updated: November 30, 2024
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First submittedJanuary 5, 2023
Times taken466
Average score50.0%
Rating4.60
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1. Cipher
Greek
Arabic
German
Esperanto
From the Arabic صفر (sifr), 'zero', via mediaeval Latin and French
2. Shampoo
Hindi
Dutch
Russian
Javanese
From a Hindi word meaning 'knead' (when applied to muscles)
3. Yacht
Turkish
Greek
Serbo-Croat
Dutch
From the Dutch jagen, 'chase' or 'hunt'
4. Ketchup
Chinese
Japanese
Bengali
Brummie
From kōe 'seafood' + tsiap 'sauce', kōetsiap, 'brine of pickled fish'. Someone really needs to write to Mr. Heinz.
5. Bimbo
Portuguese
Spanish
Italian
Rhaeto-Romansch
The Italian for 'baby' - weirdly in the masculine form.
6. Galore
Breton
Welsh
Gaelic
French
From Gaelic, Scottish gu leòr, Irish go leór, 'enough'
7. Commando
Greek
Italian
Spanish
Afrikaans
Ultimately derived from the Latin for (surprise surprise) 'command'
8. Corgi
Welsh
Italian
Arabic
Chinese
From cor, 'dwarf' + gi, 'dog'
9. Penguin
Maori
Khoekhoe (Khoisan)
Caiwá
Welsh
Yes it's Welsh again! Well, probably. From pen, 'head', and gwyn, 'white'. The name was originally applied to the now-extinct Great Auk
10. Champagne
Klingon
Urdu
High Atlas Berber
French
Well duh.
6 Comments
+1
Level 63
Mar 15, 2024
Great quiz!
+1
Level 57
Mar 16, 2024
Thank you!
+2
Level 69
Dec 5, 2024
Nice quiz! Maybe add more words that could be guessed by knowing their history? For example laconic (easier if you know the Spartans) or berserk (ditto the Vikings) or avocado (Aztecs) or kahuna (Hawaiian). Or words that you could guess by the way they sound, like kowtow or balalaika or alcohol/algebra/alchemy? It's always more fun to do an educated guess than to use pure luck.

The quizmaster's quizzes often start with a couple easy ones, so maybe start with gimmes like cuisine or lingerie.

+1
Level 57
Dec 5, 2024
Those are some interesting ideas - thank you! "Laconic" is lovely, I wasn't aware of that one. I'll add it when I get round to it. On the whole though I do get a bit tired of quiz questions which feel easy, and this is supposed to be a slightly specialised one around language (rather than history or geography), so it's intended to be quite hard for most people - and judging by the nice triangular shape of the answer statistics so far, it is a reasonable gradation, although perhaps the order isn't the best. Some of them I have included because they're not immediately obvious, but when you find out, they should be a real head-smacker - that's how penguin was for me, I don't know about anyone else. On the other hand I am absolutely baffled at how there are far more people who got corgi than bimbo.

Anyway, thanks again for your comment, food for thought.

+1
Level 65
Dec 5, 2024
Neat quiz! Might suggest rewording the "galore" options, since Irish isn't typically called "Gaelic," Scottish Gaelic is usually written out in-full, and both derive from Old Irish and Proto-Celtic before.
+1
Level 57
Dec 6, 2024
Thank you! Well - in Britain and Ireland at least they are routinely called Gaelic, and distinguished by how you pronounce it ("gallic" for Scottish and the rather more questionable-sounding "gay lick" for Irish). You can of course say Irish or Scottish before them to be quite clear but it's certainly not always done. And if that weren't true then I'd have to take "galore" out of the quiz I think.... se mòr-thubaist a bhiodh ann!