Q 01/05

Citizens of which country share their demonym's root with Deutsch, the German word for German?

A) Netherlands

B) Austria

C) Switzerland

D) Liechtenstein

Answer · why

A) Netherlands

The Netherlands' demonym, Dutch, comes from the same old Germanic word as Deutsch, meaning 'of the people'. English once used Dutch for German speaker...

Q 02/05

The kiwifruit, once the Chinese gooseberry, shares its name with a nickname for which country's citizens?

A) Australia

B) New Zealand

C) South Africa

D) Argentina

Answer · why

B) New Zealand

New Zealand exporters Turners & Growers adopted the name in 1959, borrowing kiwi, the national bird that had already given New Zealanders their nickna...

Q 03/05

Hoosier, a word of disputed origin, is the official demonym for which Midwestern US state?

A) Illinois

B) Iowa

C) Wisconsin

D) Indiana

Answer · why

D) Indiana

Indiana residents have been Hoosiers since the 1830s, yet nobody has settled where the word came from. An 1833 poem, The Hoosier's Nest, helped it spr...

Q 04/05

A Scouser, a nickname taken from a sailors' stew, is a native of which English port city?

A) Bristol

B) Liverpool

C) Portsmouth

D) Plymouth

Answer · why

B) Liverpool

Liverpool's nickname comes from scouse, short for lobscouse, a sailors' stew with cousins across northern Europe, such as Norway's lapskaus.

Q 05/05

Which demonym from an ancient Greek city-state now also means austere, frugal and self-disciplined?

A) Athenian

B) Corinthian

C) Theban

D) Spartan

Answer · why

D) Spartan

Spartan earned its second meaning from the city's harsh upbringing: boys of the citizen class entered a state training system, the agoge, at age seven...