Language Trivia

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Language trivia questions and answers.

Fun language trivia questions and answers.

What is the name of the layer of atmosphere between the stratosphere and the ionosphere?
A: The mesosphere.

What letter was the last to be included in our alphabet?
A: The "j" which became the 26th letter during the fifteenth century. Before then, the "i" represented both the "i" and "j" sounds.

What is a funambulist?
A :A tight rope walker.

In computerese, what is the difference between a bit and a byte.
A: A bit is a single, basic unit of information; a byte is generally eight bits.

How did the nautical measure of speed known as the knot get its name?
A: From sixteenth century mariners who let out a line with knots tied at regular intervals and then counted the number of knots played out in a given time to determine their ship's approximate speed.

What is the origin of "buck" in the phrase "passing the buck"?
A: A buckhorn-handled knife that was placed in front of the next card dealer. A card player who didn't want to deal would pass the knife--or buckhorn.

What is a gigaton?
A: The explosive force of a billion tons of TNT--or 1,000 megatons.

What is the origin of the word "radar".
A: It comes from radio detecting and ranging.

What were the very first items referred to as gadgets?
A: Miniatures of the Statue of Liberty sold in Europe in 1886 to mark the statue's dedication. The word "gadget" came from the name of the man--Gaget--who came up with the replica idea.

How many feet of fabric are there in a bolt of cloth?
A: One hundred and twenty feet.

What does "Erin go bragh" mean?
A: "Ireland forever."

What is the origin of Mayday, the international radiotelephonic distress signal for ships and aircraft?
A: The French m'aidez--help me.

What is the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary?
A: Floccinaucinibilipilifacation, which is defined as "the act or habit of estimating as worthless."

How did the Blimp get named.
A: During World War II there were two categories of dirigibles: A-rigid and B-limp.

What is the literal meaning of "aloha"--the Hawaiian word of greeting and farewell?
A: Love.

What is a tittle?
A: The dot over the letters "i" and "j."

How did detectives come to be called private eyes?
A: From the unblinking-eye logo of Pinkerton's detective agency which proclaimed "We Never Sleep."

Which is more, an American billion or a British billion?
A: A British billion. It's 1,000,000,000,000--which is a trillion in the U.S. The American billion, 1,000,000,000 is known as a milliard in England.

In computer slang, a byte is a group of bits. What do you calla group of bytes?
A: A gulp.

What is the origin of the word "good-bye"?
A: It's a contraction of the sixteenth-century phrase "God be with ye."

What is trinitrotolluene?
A: The chemical compound we know as TNT.

In the Middle Ages, when last names such as Baker and Taylor reflected a person's occupation, what did "Webster" indicate?
A: A female weaver. A male weaver was called Webb.

The Sherpa tribesmen o Nepal call the creature we know as the Abominable Snowman "Metohkangmi." What is the literal translation of the name?
A: "the indescribably filthy man of the snow."

Language Trivia Questions and Answers

Language trivia questions and answers.