[Ads-l] quiz and nytimes

[Stephen Goranson]

Confusingly, the NY Times belatedly approved my comment on "quiz" but no NYT reader is offered a link to comments.
But here is my unofficial link
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/insider/do-you-know-the-origin-of-the-word-quiz.html#commentsContainer&permid=133033129:133033129
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/05/05/pageoneplus/05a3_wordthroughthetimes-QUIZ-02/05a3_wordthroughthetimes-QUIZ-02-facebookJumbo.jpg]<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/insider/do-you-know-the-origin-of-the-word-quiz.html#commentsContainer&permid=133033129:133033129>
Do You Know the Origin of the Word ‘Quiz’?<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/insider/do-you-know-the-origin-of-the-word-quiz.html#commentsContainer&permid=133033129:133033129>
OK, so this is actually a trick question …
www.nytimes.com
and my comment:


Stephen Goranson
Durham, NC4h ago

"Quiz,"  early on, apparently referred to a person with an unusual look, or phiz (physiogomy), so maybe a contraction. "....a number of the Scholars [at Harrow] seeing that they were strangers, had gathered about them, calling them ludicrous names, such as bucks, bloods, and quizzes [quizzes in italics], which latter was explained by Mr. Bearcroft, as the cant word of the school for the year, being an abbreviation of the words [italic next two:] quere phizzes, and that the Defendants had pulled the hair of the Plaintiffs, spit upon them, and otherwise ill treated them..." Stamford Mercury, Thurs. June 19, 1783, p.3 col. 3 1780  John Hope *Hope’s Curious and comic misellaneous works, started in his walks ... (HathiTrust) 261:   But now it seems no longer odd;/For here thou say’st, my little quiz!/(How could I read it in thy phiz?)

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 4:36 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: quiz and nytimes

Stephen is certainly on the right track with his comment
about the word quiz. Might I now draw attention to two items
which, together, treat the etymology of quiz in some detail:
1.  PASCAL TREGUER and GERALD COHEN: Possible origin of
18th century quiz [with the meaning] person of peculiar
or ridiculous appearance.   Comments on Etymology,
April 2019, vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 2-25.

2. GERALD COHEN: QUIZ - How did its meaning change from
someone or something ridiculous to informal test?
Comments on Etymology, Oct. 2020, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 2-4.

I will check with Pascal and see if these items can be put online.
Btw (side note), his overall research is extraordinary.

Gerald Cohen, editor
Comments on Etymology

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 2:50 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: quiz and nytimes

If I recall correctly. I read an article in NYT, to which I am a subscriber=
, on the origin of quiz, to which I replied suggesting that queer (odd) plu=
s phiz (physiognomy) contracted was worth considering, but now no comment, =
unlike before, is allowed.
But I may be mistaken.
Stephen Goranson

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