Q 01/05

In German, 'Morgen' means morning, while the same word with a small 'm' means what?

A) Today

B) Yesterday

C) Tomorrow

D) Early

Answer · why

C) Tomorrow

Tomorrow. English once did much the same: 'morrow' used to mean morning, and 'tomorrow' began as Old English 'to morgenne', literally 'on the morning'...

Q 02/05

The word "dawn" comes from the Old English verb dagian, meaning what?

A) To wake from sleep

B) To shine

C) To rise

D) To become day

Answer · why

D) To become day

To become day. Oddly, 'dawning' is the older word: 'dawn' was probably clipped from it around 1200, and Old English speakers called daybreak 'dagung'.

Q 03/05

The "a.m." on a clock stands for the Latin ante meridiem, which translates as what?

A) After midnight

B) Before midday

C) Before sunrise

D) After sunrise

Answer · why

B) Before midday

Before midday. That is why noon itself is strictly neither a.m. nor p.m.: it cannot come before or after itself, so timekeepers advise writing '12 noo...

Q 04/05

Which meal's name comes from a medieval word that literally meant 'to break one's fast'?

A) Supper

B) Dinner

C) Lunch

D) Picnic

Answer · why

B) Dinner

Dinner. Medieval dinner was the day's first big meal, eaten between nine and noon; the name stuck as the meal slid later, and the word 'breakfast' is ...

Q 05/05

Which kind of poem or song is about lovers parting at dawn?

A) A serenade

B) An elegy

C) A nocturne

D) An aubade

Answer · why

D) An aubade

An aubade. Troubadours' dawn songs warned a knight to slip away from his lady before he was caught; John Donne's 'The Sun Rising' turns the idea round...