Language Trivia

"Euouae," a medieval music term, is the longest word in English that contains only vowels. It’s also the word
with the most consecutive vowels.
"Screeched," which means to make a harsh sound, is the longest one-syllable word in English.
"Unprosperousness", meaning not wealthy or profitable, is the longest word in English in which each letter is
used at least two times.
The words "facetiously," "abstemiously," and "arseniously," each contain all six vowels (including “y”) in
alphabetical order. The word "duoliteral" contains all five vowels (not including “y”) in reverse alphabetical
order.
At 45 letters, "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis," which refers to a lung disease, is often
considered the longest word in English.
"Feedback" is the shortest word in English that has the letters a, b, c, d, e, and f.
"Floccinaucinihilipilification," is the longest word in English that does not contain letter “e”
No words in English rhyme with: "month," "orange," "silver," or "purple."
“Q” is the only letter that does not occur in any of the U.S. state names.
"Maine" is the only U.S. state whose name is just one syllable.
"Bookkeeper" is the only English word that has three consecutive double letters.
The word “therein” contains only seven letters, but it contains 10 words that can be formed using consecutive
letters: the, there, I, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, herein.
The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram, which is a sentence that uses every
letter of the alphabet.
"United Arab Emirates," a small country in the Middle East, is made up of alternating vowels and consonants. It
is the longest name of a country whose letters do that.

The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the
king is dead".

The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning
"containing arsenic."

"Polish" is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun
or a verb to a nationality.

"Corduroy" comes from the French, "cord du roi" or "cloth of the king."

The slash character is called a virgule, or solidus. A URL uses slash characters, not back slash
characters.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each
other: adhere and separate.

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence
contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the
streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

The highest scoring word in the English language game of Scrabble is 'Quartzy'. This will score
164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter
square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the
Y on those squares. 'Bezique' and 'Cazique' are next with a possible 161 points. All three words
score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go.

The English word with the most consonants in a row is latchstring.

The word "robot" was created by Karel Capek. It came from Czech/Slovak "robotovat," which
means to work very hard.

The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is the word "deeded."

A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.

The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable.

The word "karate" means "empty hand."

The word "girl" appears only once in the Bible.

The abbrevation "PDX" (Portland International Airport) is derived from "P" standing for
Portland and "DX" meaning long distance or wide reaching.

The abbreviation "ORD" for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name "Orchard Field."

Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of
Japan.

A H I M O T U V W X Y are the symmetric capital letters in the Roman alphabet. i l o t u v w x

are the symmetric lower case letters in the Roman alphabet.

All Hebrew orignating names that end with the letters "el" have something to do with God.
Source: Joshua Allen

The 'v' in the name of a court case does not stand for 'versus', but for 'and' (in civil proceedings)
or 'against' (in criminal proceedings).

The term, honeymoon, is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored
wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the
groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding; that month became known
as the honeymonth, hence our honeymoon. Source: Bryan Giese

"Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels.
The national anthem of the Netherlands "Het Wilhelmus," is an 'acrostichon.' The first letters of
each of the fifteen verses represent the name "Willem Van Nassov" (old spelling.) Source: Albert
Siersema

The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths."
Source: Michael Baraz

'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.

The longest place-name still in use is

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatah
u, a New Zealand hill.

The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It is a a pneumoconiosis caused by the
inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. The only other word with the same amount of
letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

The second longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is "floccinaucinihilipilification,"

which means "the act of estimating as worthless."

The third longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism".

The longest muscle name is the "levator labiisuperioris alaeque nasi" and Elvis popularized it
with his lip motions.

'Stewardesses' and 'reverberated' are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed
using on the left hand.

The longest word that can be typed using on the right hand is 'lollipop'.

'Skepticisms' is the longest word that can be typed using alternate hands.

One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing
multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.'

One out of every eight letters used in written English is an e. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"

Alma mater means bountiful mother.

No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple.

The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a
palindrome.

The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed
frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

No word in the English language rhymes with month.

"Evian" spelled backwards is naive.

The word denim comes from 'deNimes', or from Nimes, a place in France.

Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool.

Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge.

"Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.

The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help after (SOS), it comes from the French term
"M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me"

The term "devil's advocate"comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone
should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast +
lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau."

Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning
testicle.

AM and PM stand for "Ante-Meridian" and "Post-Meridian," respectively, and A.D. actually
stands for "Anno Domini" rather than "After Death."

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't
beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Lucifer is latin for "Light Bringer". It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael.
Satan Means "adversary", devil means "liar".

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order.

The heraldic term "gules", meaning red, comes from the French word "gueules", meaning a
throat.

The "D" in D-day means "Day". The French term for "D-Day" is "J-jour".

The only Dutch word to contain eight consecutive consonants is 'angstschreeuw'.

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times:
Indivisibility.

The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the same if you turn them
upside down or see them from behind.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

The youngest letters in the English language are "j," "v" and "w."

The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one end point is P.
The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

"Xmas" does not begin with the Roman letter X. It begins with the Greek letter "chi," which was
used in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation for the word "Christ" (xus=christus, etc.)

The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.

"Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three
consecutive double letters.

There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging
any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere therein, herein.

"Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters
"und."

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

There are only three words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu,
vacuum and continuum.

The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES.

The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.

The oldest word in the English language is "town"

Hydroxydesoxycorticosteroneandhydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de
Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."

The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan."

The word "Boondocks" comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word "Bundok," which means
mountain.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin "tri-" + "via", which means three streets.
This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome (or some other
Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might
be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia."

There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous,
horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

"Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if
you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about
someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil"
The "Nullarbor" in Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia is a Latin name; Null=No,
Arbor=Trees.

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."

The 'y' in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The "th"
sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune
"thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the
Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y".

"Hara kiri" is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally,
"belly splitting."

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

The word "moose" was originally Algonquin.

The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."

The ampersand (&) is actually a stylised version of the Latin word "et," meaning and."

The word "hangnail" comes from Middle English:ang- (painful) + nail. Nothing to do with
hanging.

QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland
And Northern Territories Air Service.

The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.'

The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.'

No modern language has a true concept of "I am." It is always used linked with are in reference
of another verb.

The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr", which means
"lord of the sea"

In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.

German has a word for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some
conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food.

The Chinese ideogram for "trouble" symbolizes "two women living under one roof".

The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the
day to yourself."

Swahili is acombination of African tribal languages, Arabic and Portuguese.

The abbreviation for pound, "lb.," comes from the astrological sign Libra, meaning balance, and
symbolized by scales.
 The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle,
G.P.

The native tribe of Tierradel Fuego has a language so guttural it cannot have an alphabet.

Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of monarchial rule in England, each shire had
a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was
shortned to Sheriff.

The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.

The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate."

(MOdulateDEModulate)

"Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.

The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."

The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.

The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental."

A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).

A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.

A ghost writer pens an anonymous book.

A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a
"philter."

A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.

A speleologist studies caves.

Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular during the Middle Ages.

"Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in the 1920's to describe the
practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing.

Ballistics is the science that deals with the motion of projectiles.

Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.

DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleicacid.

In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer,
investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a
computer, it is said to have a bug in it.

In the 19th century, craftsmen who made hats were known to be excitable and irrational, as well as to tremble
with palsy and mix up their words. Such behavior gave rise to the familiar expression "mad as a hatter". The
disorder, called hatter's shakes, was caused by chronic mercury poisoning from the solution used to treat the
felt. Attacking the central nervous system, the toxin led to behavioral symptoms.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be.
They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that
it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

"Long in the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As horses age, their gums recede,
giving the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.

Oddly, no term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a variety of expressions
referring to specific homosexual roles. Experts find this baffling, as the old Greek culture regarded male/male
love in the highest regard. According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by
the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.

Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated,
dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.

Poor whites in Florida and Georgia are called "crackers." They got the name from their principal staple food,
cracked corn. Another theory states that the name comes from the days when they would drive cattle southward
using the "crack" of their bullwhips to keep the animals in line and moving.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a
second string in case the one on his bow broke.

The "O" when used as a prefix in Irish surnames means "descendant of."

The "y" in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a "th" sound, not "y". The "th" sound does not
exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England used the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds.
With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was
the lower case "y".

The ancient Romans built such an excellent system of roads that the saying arose "all roads lead to Rome," that
is, no matter which road one starts a journey on, he will finally reach Rome if he keeps on traveling. The
popular saying came to mean that all ways or methods of doing something end in the same result, no method
being better than another.
The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

The expletive, "Holy Toledo," refers to Toledo, Spain, which became an outstanding Christian cultural center in
1085.

The idiom "pillar of salt" means to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed and dead.

The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the
antepenultimate.

The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many
of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that
raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to
the current expression.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To
remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife
with anything wider than your thumb. Actually, that's a piece of folk etymology. The phrase refers to the use of
rough and ready practical experience rather than formal procedures in getting something done. It's most likely
that the saying comes from carpenters using the length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch
long, to measure things. So "rule" refers to a ruler in the sense of measurement, not of despotism or male
chauvinism. Other parts of the body were used as a ruler, too. A foot was determined by a pace, the distance
from the tip of the nose to the outstretched fingers is roughly a yard, and horse heights are still measured by
hands—the width of the palm and closed thumb is about four inches.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling.

The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on
the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port
side because that was the side that you put in on at the port.

The side of a hammer is a cheek.

The study of insects is called entomology.

The study of word origins is called etymology.

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When deciding if someone should be
sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that
Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high
temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."
The term "honeymoon" is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored wine, the official
wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the
month following the wedding.

The term "throw one's hat in the ring" comes from boxing, where throwing a hat into the ring once signified a
challenge. Today it nearly always signifies political candidacy.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their
airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded
into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during
wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is
to poke someone's eye out.

The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.

The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

The word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.

The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the
English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.

The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions
according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)

The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.

The word "coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used.

The word "karate" means "empty hand."

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."

The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning throat or gullet. This is also the
origin of the word gargle. The word describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air.
In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.

The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first letters of the words
North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions.

The word quisling comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who collaborated with the
Germans during their occupation of Norway. The word now means "traitor."

The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.

The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan."

Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word "I".
Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once
in their inaugural addresses.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have
fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are
885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without
a period

English Language Trivia

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched."

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver,or purple.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous,
and hazardous.

Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange,

purple, and silver!

Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The

following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced,
thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after
falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

alternately:
"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The longest word in the English language is 1909 letters long and it
refers to a distinct part of DNA.

The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which
are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a

letter is uncopyrightable.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct

order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."
 The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah
Mat," which means "the king is dead".

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."

The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses
every letter in the English language.

The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they
start with.

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to

remember the word you want.

TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters
on only one row of the keyboard.

The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left
to right or right to left.

No word in the English language rhymes with month.

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

English language did you knows

 Did you knowthe most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E
 Did you knowdreamt is the only word that ends in mt
 Did you knowthe first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON
 Did you knowthere are only 4 words in the English language which end in 'dous' (they are: hazardous,
horrendous, stupendous and tremendous)
 Did you knowthe oldest word in the English language is 'town'
 Did you know'Bookkeeper' and 'bookkeeping' are the only 2 words in the English language with three
consecutive double letters
 Did you knowthe word 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel
 Did you knowthe dot on top of the letter 'i' is called a tittle
 Did you knowthe past tense for the English word 'dare' is 'durst'
 Did you knowthe word 'testify' derived from a time when men were required to swear on their testicles
 Did you knowThe first English dictionary was written in 1755
 Did you knowthe word old English word 'juke' meaning dancing lends its name to the juke box
 Did you know1 out of every 8 letters written is an e
 Did you knowthe longest one syllable word in the English language is 'screeched'
 Did you knowall pilots on international flights identify themselves in English regardless of their country of
origin
 Did you knowthe expression to 'knuckle down' originated from playing marbles (players used to put their
knuckles to the ground for their best shots)
 Did you knowthe word 'almost' is the longest in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order
 Did you knowthe most commonly used word in English conversation is 'I'
Trivia about books and literature

(21 facts) "The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in
history.

All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and
boys. In England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on
stage.

All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book "Peter Pan" were
bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in
London.

Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was
on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog"
in history.

Bilbo Baggins was born on September 22 1290.

Brabara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million
copies sold.

Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was
changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel
(Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.

Dr. Seuss wrote "Green Eggs and Ham" after his editor dared him to write a
book using fewer than 50 different words.

Edgar Allan Poe introduced mystery fiction's first fictional detective,

Auguste C. Dupin, in his 1841 story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

Frank Baum named "Oz" after a file cabinet in his office. One cabinet was
labeled "A to N," and the second was labeled "O to Z."

Ghosts appear in 4 Shakespearian plays; Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet

and Macbeth.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published March 20,
1852. It was the first American novel to sell one million copies.

John Milton used 8,000 different words in his poem, "Paradise Lost."

Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In
her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the
O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."
 Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of "Bartlett's Familiar
Quotations," only 164 are women.

Professor Moriarity was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy.

Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'

Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on

the mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet"
(1887).

The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and
candlestick maker.

The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, 'Aladdin was
a little Chinese boy.'

The Three Musketeers names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan
joins them later.)

quizballs 56 - literary quiz- questions & answers

free literary quiz questions and answers - for pub quizzes, pub games, team games, learning and fun
Quiz intro ...

This is a page from the Quizballs zone of the Businessballs website. Quizballs provides free quiz questions and
answers for trivia quizzes, team games, pub quizzes, general knowledge, learning and amusement. Use the quiz
and questions and answers to suit your purposes, either as a stand-alone quiz, or to cut and paste to make your
own quizzes.
Quizballs accepts no liability for any arguments, lost bets, or otherwise unfortunate consequences arising from
any errors contained in these quizzes although quite a lot of effort is made to ensure that questions are clear and
answers are correct. Please notify us of any errors, or questions or answers requiring clarification.
These quizzes are free to use in pub quizzes, trivia quizzes, organisational events and team-building, but are not
to be sold or published, which includes not posting them on other websites, thank you.
Below are the quiz answers. Here are the quiz questions without answers.
The typo in the supporting information for the answer to question 90 was corrected to show that Caxton printed
Canterbury Tales in 1476, not 1976... thanks R Kershaw - 2 Sep 2008

see the quizballs.com quizzes website operated by businessballs

quizballs 56 - free bookworm quiz - literary questions and answers for trivia quizzes and pub quizzes

1. What word, extended from a more popular term, refers to a fictional book of between 20,000 and 50,000
words? Novella
2. Who wrote the famous 1855 poem The Charge of the Light Brigade? Lord Alfred Tennyson(1809-92)
3. In 1960 the UK publishing ban was lifted on what 1928 book? Lady Chatterley's Lover (by D H
Lawrence)
4. In bookmaking how many times would an quarto sheet be folded? Twice (to create four leaves)
5. Who wrote the seminal 1936 self-help book How to Win Friends and Influence People? Dale Carnegie
6. Who in 1450 invented movable type, thus revolutionising printing? Johannes Gutenberg
7. Which Polish-born naturalised British novelist's real surname was Korzeniowski? Joseph
Conrad (1857-1924, full name Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski)
8. Which short-lived dramatist is regarded as the first great exponent of blank verse? Christopher
Marlowe (1564-93 - Blank verse traditionally is unrhymed, comprising ten syllables per line, stressing
every second syllable.)
9. Who wrote the maxim 'Cogito, ergo sum' (I think, therefore I am)? René Descartes (1596-1650, French
philosopher and mathematician, in his work Discours de la Méthode, 1637.)
10. Who was the youngest of the three Brontë writing sisters? Anne Brontë (1820-49 - other sisters were
Emily, 1818-48, and Charlotte, 1816-55, plus a brother, Branwell, 1817-48. The two oldest sisters,
Maria and Elizabeth died in childhood.)
11. What is the Old English heroic poem, surviving in a single copy dated around the year 1000, featuring
its eponymous 6th century warrior from Geatland in Sweden? Beowulf
12. What relatively modern school of philosophy, popular in literature since the mid 1900s, broadly
embodies the notion of individual freedom of choice within a disorded and inexplicable
universe? Existentialism
13. What was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson? Lewis Carroll (1832-98)
14. Who wrote Dr Zhivago? Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960)
15. What term and type of comedy is derived from the French word for stuffing? Farce or farcical(from the
French farcir, to stuff, based on analogy between stuffing in cookery and the insertion of frivolous
material into medieval plays.)
16. What term originally meaning 'storehouse' referred, and still refers, to a periodical of various content and
imaginative writing? Magazine
17. Who wrote the significant scientific book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in
1687? Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
18. What 16th century establishment in London's Bread Street was a notable writers' haunt? The Mermaid
Tavern
19. Who wrote the 1845 poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin? Robert Browning (1812-89)
20. Which American poet and humanist wrote and continually revised a collection of poems called Leaves
of Grass? Walt Whitman (1819-92 - the title is apparently a self-effacing pun, since grass was
publishing slang for work of little value, and leaves are pages.)
21. The period between 1450 and 1600 in European development is known by what term, initially used by
Italian scholars to express the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture? The
Renaissance (literally meaning rebirth)
22. What is the main dog character called in Norton Juster's 1961 popular children's/adult-crossover book
The Phantom Tollbooth? Tock
23. Who detailed his experiences before and during World War I in Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, and
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer? Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)
24. What significant law relating to literary and artistic works was first introduced in
1709? Copyright (prior to which creators had no legal means of protecting their work from being
published or exploited by others)
25. Who wrote the 1891 book Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)? Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900)
26. What word, meaning 'measure' in Greek, refers to the rhythm of a line of verse? Metre (or meter)
27. Cheap literature of the 16-18th centuries was known as 'what' books, based on the old word for the
travelling traders who sold them? Chapbooks (a chapman was a travelling salesman, from the earlier
term cheapman)
28. What was Samuel Langhorne Clemens' pen-name? Mark Twain (1835-1910)
29. Derived from Greek meaning summit or finishing touch, what word refers to the publisher's logo and
historically the publisher's details at the end of the book? Colophon
30. Japanese three-line verses called Haiku contain how many syllables? Seventeen
31. Stanley Kubrick successfully requested the UK ban of his own film based on what Anthony Burgess
book? A Clockwork Orange
32. The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) code was increased to how many digits from 1
January 2007? Thirteen
33. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis asserts that people's perceptions and attitudes are affected particularly by
what: book covers, book price, or words and language? Words and language(the theory applies to all
media and language, in that the type of words and language read and used affects how people react to
the world)
34. What is the female term equating to a phallic symbol? Yonic symbol
35. James Carker is a villain in which Charles Dickens novel? Dombey and Son (serialised 1846-8)
36. What famous 1818 novel had the sub-title 'The Modern Prometheus'? Frankenstein (by Mary Shelley)
37. Who wrote the 1947 book The Fountainhead? Ayn Rand
38. By what name is the writer François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) better known? Voltaire
39. Which pioneering American poet and story-teller wrote The Fall of the House of Usher? Edgar Allen
Poe (1809-49)
40. According to Matthew 27 in the Bible what prisoner was released by Pontius Pilate instead of
Jesus? Barabbas
41. What was the 1920s arts group centred around Leonard and Virginia Woolf and the district of London
which provided the group's name? The Bloomsbury Group
42. What Japanese term (meaning 'fold' and 'book') refers to a book construction made using concertina fold,
with writing/printing on one side of the paper? Orihon
43. What were the respective family names of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet? Montague and Capulet
44. Who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking in 1953? Norman Vincent Peale
45. Around 100AD what type of book construction began to replace scrolls? Codex (a series of folios sewn
together)
46. What name for a lyrical work, typically 50-200 lines long, which from the Greek word for song? Ode
47. Who wrote the 1866 book Crime and Punishment? Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81)
48. Who wrote the 1513 guide to leadership (titled in English) The Prince? Niccolo Machiavelli
49. William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey are commonly referred to as the
'what' Poets? Lake Poets (from around 1800 they lived close to each other in the Lake District of
England)
50. In bookmaking, a sheet folded three times is called by what name? Octavo (creating eight leaves)
51. What is the parrot's name in Enid Blyton's 'Adventure' series of books? Kiki
52. Who wrote The French Lieutenant's Woman? John Fowles (1969)
53. What word, which in Greek means 'with' or 'after', prefixes many literary and language terms to denote
something in a different position? Meta
54. "Reader, I married him," appears in the conclusion of what novel? Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte,
1847)
55. Philosopher and writer Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832, is associated with what school of
thought? Utilitarianism (broadly Utilitarianism argues that society should be organised to produce the
greatest happiness for the greatest number of people)
56. What influential American philosopher and author wrote the book 'Walden, or Life in the
Woods'? Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)
57. The ancient Greek concept of the 'three unities' advocated that a literary work should use a single
plotline, single location, and what other single aspect? Time (or real time)
58. Which statesman won the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature? Sir Winston Churchill
59. Who is the second oldest of the Pevensie children in C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe? Susan (bonus points: Peter is the oldest, Edmund is third and Lucy is youngest. The lion is
Aslan. The first edition was published in 1950.)
60. Who wrote the plays Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard? Anton Pavlovich Chekhov(1860-1904)
61. What technical word is given usually to the left-side even-numbered page of a book? Verso
62. Which two writers fought a huge unsuccessful legal action in 2006-7 claiming that Dan Brown's The Da
Vinci Code had plaguarised their work? Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh
63. What is the pen-name of novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-80)? George Eliot
64. What technical word is given usually to the right-side odd-numbered page of a book? Recto
65. In what decade was the Oxford English Dictionary first published? 1920s (1928)
66. What simple term, alternatively called Anglo-Saxon, refers to the English language which was used
from the 5th century Germanic invasions, until (loosely) its fusion with Norman-French around 12-13th
centuries? Old English
67. Who wrote Brighton Rock (1938) and Our Man in Havana (1958)? Graham Greene
68. Laurens van der Post's prisoner of war experiences, described in his books The Seed and the Sower
(1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970) inspired what film? Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
69. With which troubled son are parents Laius and Jocasta associated? Oedipus (The mythical Greek
character unknowingly killed his father King Laius and married his mother Jocasta. Sigmund Freud's
term Oedipus Complex refers to similar feelings supposedly arising in male infant development.)
70. Which Russian writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970? Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
71. The book Eunoia, by Christian Bok, suggests in its title, and features exclusively what, in turn, in its first
five chapters? The vowels a, e, i, o, u. (Each chapter contains words using only one vowel type. Bok
says Eunoia means 'beautiful thinking'. Eunioa is otherwise a medical term based on the Greek meaning
'well mind'.)
72. Which great thinker collaborated with Sigmund Freud to write the 1933 book Why War? Albert
Einstein
73. Legal action by J K Rowling and Warner Brothers commenced in 2007 against which company for its
plans to publish a Harry Potter Lexicon? RDR Books
74. Who wrote the 1939 book The Big Sleep? Raymond Chandler
75. "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice which I've been turning over
in my mind ever since," is the start of which novel? The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
76. In the early 1900s a thriller was instead more commonly referred to as what sort of book? Shocker (or
shilling shocker)
77. Who wrote the books Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? Victor Hugo
78. In what decade were ISBN numbers introduced to the UK? 1960s (1966)
79. In 1969, P H Newby's book Something to Answer For was the first winner of what prize? Booker
Prize (the Man Booker Prize from 2002)
80. Who established Britain's first printing press in 1476? William Caxton
81. The word 'book' is suggested by some etymologists to derive from the ancient practice of writing on
tablets made of what wood? Beech (Boc was an Old English word for beech wood)
82. What is the name of the first digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971? Project Gutenberg
83. French writer Sully Prudhomme was the first winner of what prize in 1901? Nobel Prize for Literature
84. Who wrote Naked Lunch, (also titled The Naked Lunch)? William Burroughs (1959)
85. In Shakespeare's King Lear, which two daughters benefit initially from their father's rejection of the
third daughter Cordelia? Goneril and Regan
86. What was Christopher Latham Scholes' significant invention of 1868? Typewriter
87. Which novel begins "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good
fortune must be in want of a wife..."? Pride and Prejudice (by Jane Austen, 1813)
88. Japanese author and playwrite Yukio Mishima committed what extreme act in 1970 while campaigning
for Japan to restore its nationalistic principles? Suicide
89. Which American philosopher, and often-quoted advocate of individualism, published essays on Self-
Reliance, Love, Heroism, Character and Manners in his Collections of 1841 and 1844? Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-82)
90. Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, printed in Bruges around 1475 is regarded as the first book to have
been what? Printed in the English language (Caxton later printed Canterbury Tales in Westminster in
1476, which is regarded as the first book printed in the English language in England.)
91. In what city does Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace begin? Saint Petersburg (Petrograd and
Leningrad are recent alternative and now obsolete names of this city - the quizmaster/mistress can
decide if these answers are correct..)
92. Which French writer declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964? Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980 -
apparently he declined because he had an aversion to being 'institutionalised', although the real facts of
the matter are elusive.)
93. What controversial novel begins: "[a person's name], light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, My soul,"
? Lolita (by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955)
94. Jonathan Harker's Journal and Dr Seward's Diary feature in what famous 1897 novel? Dracula(by Bram
Stoker)
95. What is the technical name for a fourteen-lined poem in rhymed iambic pentameters? Sonnet
96. "Make then laugh; make them cry; make them wait..." was a personal maxim of which
novelist? Charles Dickens
97. What is the land of giants called in Gulliver's Travels? Brobdingnag
98. What prolific and highly regarded American author, who became a British subject a year before his
death, wrote The Wings of the Dove; Washington Square, and the Golden Bowl? Henry James (1843-
1916)
99. What term for a short, usually witty, poem or saying derives from the Greek words 'write' and
'on'? Epigram (epi = on, grapheine = write, which evolved into Latin and French to the modern English
word)

What was the original title of the book on which the film Schindler's List was based? Schindler's Ark (by
Thomas Keneally, which won the 1982 Booker Prize)