Q 01/05

From which Greek word meaning 'true sense' does 'etymology' derive?

A) Lexis

B) Logos

C) Étymon

D) Onoma

Answer · why

C) Étymon

The suffix -logia denotes 'the study of'.

Q 02/05

What is the term for a noun after which something is named, like Elizabeth I for the Elizabethan era?

A) Eponym

B) Toponym

C) Homonym

D) Acronym

Answer · why

A) Eponym

The Assyrians named each year after a high official as early as the second millennium BC.

Q 03/05

Which author first used 'portmanteau' for a blended word like smog or motel?

A) Edward Lear

B) Oscar Wilde

C) Charles Dickens

D) Lewis Carroll

Answer · why

D) Lewis Carroll

He used it in Through the Looking-Glass in 1871.

Q 04/05

Who coined the term 'back-formation' in 1889, using 'to burgle' from 'burglar' as an example?

A) Samuel Johnson

B) James Murray

C) Henry Fowler

D) Noah Webster

Answer · why

B) James Murray

He was the founding editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Q 05/05

The word 'loanword' is itself what kind of borrowing?

A) A back-formation

B) A calque

C) An eponym

D) A portmanteau

Answer · why

B) A calque

Meanwhile 'calque' is a loanword from French.