Etymology

• Reputed without evidence to have been invented by a late 18th century Dublin theatre proprietor who bet he could add a new nonsense word to the English language. He thus had the word painted on walls all over the city. The morning after, everyone was talking about the new word.
• The original meaning is interrogation (1867), being derived from the verb. Current meaning only since 1941.
• The meaning "hoax" is the original (1796), shifting to the meaning "interrogate" (1847) under the influence of to question and inquisitive.
• Originally quies (1847), may have derived from Latin qui es? (who are you?), traditionally the first question in oral Latin exams. Used as a noun from 1867, spelling quiz first recorded in 1886.

Noun

1. A competition in the answering of questions.
2. An school examination of less import, or of greater brevity, than others given in the same course.

Verb

1. To hoax.
2. To question closely, to interrogate.