This words and language quiz is made for word nerds, Scrabble lovers and anyone who enjoys a good crossword. You'll name the terms for word types and sentence tricks, sort out a few phobias and numbers, and trace everyday English words back to some surprising languages. It's ten questions with clever little explanations that will make you notice the words you use every day.
English is a world-class borrower. Over the centuries it has picked up words from almost every language its speakers came into contact with. Tycoon comes from Japanese, cookie from Dutch and shampoo from Hindi, to name just a few. That mixed heritage is why English spelling can feel so unpredictable: words often keep traces of the languages they came from.
American English got its own push in 1828, when Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster championed simpler spellings, which is a big reason Americans write color and center while the British stick with colour and centre.
Word quizzes are fun because language is something everyone uses every day without thinking much about it. A helpful trick is to break unfamiliar words into parts. Many technical and scientific terms are built from Greek and Latin roots, so a prefix or ending you already know can unlock the meaning of a word you've never seen. Many everyday words also hide small stories about the people, places and trades that first used them.