Language and Words Trivia Questions
Free language trivia questions and answers about language and words.
What are you afraid of if you have pogonophobia?
A: Beards, or men wearing beards.
What is the meaning of the oft-quoted Latin phrase "O tempora! O
mores!"?
A: "What times! What manners!"--suggesting that both have changed
for the worse. The line is from Cicero's "In Catilinam".
Where does the expression "out of the mouths of babes" come from?
A: The Bible, Psalms 8.2, which begins: Out of the mouth of babes.
What word originated as the nickname for an English insane asylum?
A: Bedlam. It was the nickname for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London.
In Gaelic, what is the literal meaning of the name Campbell?
A: Crooked Mouth.
Where are the best language and words trivia questions with answers?
A: Trivia Country!
What is the origin of the word hoax?
A: It's believed to be a contraction of "hocus," from the expression
hocus pocus.
What is the meaning of the Latin word veto?
A: "I forbid".
What do we call a phrase that combines two contradictory
words--such as pretty ugly, jumbo shrimp or unbiased opinion?
A: An oxymoron.
When truck drivers talk about green stamp, what are they
discussing?
A: Speeding tickets.
What are you suffering from if you have ozostomia?
A: Halitosis--or bad breath.
What are you studying if you're into oology?
A: Birds' eggs.
What do the letters in the computer world acronym BASIC
represent?
A: Beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code.
What do the letters in the acronym LED stand for ?
A: Light Emitting Diode.
In computerese, what are pixels?
A: More formally known as picture, or pix, elements (pix-els), they
are the individual dots on a computer monitor.
What was the original meaning of the Latin word musculus, meaning
muscle?
A: Little mouse.
What language gave us the word honcho, for big shot or boss?
A: Japanese. Hancho means "squad commander" in Japanese.
What does the name Jonah mean when translated from Hebrew?
A: Dove.
How did April get its name?
A: From the Latin name of the month, Aprilis--derived from the verb
aperire, "to open," signifying the time of the year buds begin to
open.
What flower's name means nose-twitching in Latin--a name bestowed
on it because of its pungent aroma?
A: The nasturtium.
What is the name of the international association of women
helicopter pilots?
A :Whirly-Girls.
A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. What is a
bibliopole?
A: A seller of rare books.
How did the paisley fabric design get its name?
A: From the Scottish manufacturing town of Paisley, where copies
were made of shawls sent home by soldiers serving in India.
How did the airgun known as the BB gun get its name?
A: From the ball bearing pellets if fires.
What was the original meaning of the word clue?
A: A ball of thread or yarn-- which makes the concept of unraveling
a clue all the more meaningful.
What do the letters in the abbreviation e.g. stand for?
A :Exempli gratia--which in Latin means "for example."
What is the origin of the expression "on the Q.T."?
A: The word quiet--from which it takes the first and last letters.
What is the origin of the word Thursday?
A: It is the day of Thor, the god of thunder in Norse mythology. In
the past it was sometimes called thunderday.
