MAY 2006
 Hello!
What is it about tests of knowledge that we find so fascinating? You’d think we’d want to rest our weary brains after a day of work (or solving crosswords) but trivia nights and quiz games have never been so popular.
Trivia nights are a great way to raise money for charity. They were called Trivia Nights because the subject matter was considered to be frivolous or unimportant, such as the number of legs on a spider, or the name of Henry VIII’s third wife.
But they serve to challenge the memory, and in recent years doctors are becoming more aware of the importance of keeping the brain active.
Although learning these facts may not further our life skills or give us letters after our names, they are giving the brain a workout, far better than passively watching TV.
The word trivia comes from the Latin tri ‘three’ and via ‘road’, in other words a place where three roads meet, or a busy crossroads. This is where travellers of old would stop to exchange news, gossip. So ‘trivia’, has come to mean information of little importance or value. Pausing at crossroads to find out the latest news was probably the forerunner to stopping at the corner shop to buy a newspaper.
In medieval times, trivium was an introductory course at university studying rhetoric, grammar and logic. These were the first three of the seven liberal arts in the middle ages. These subjects were considered much less important than the later studies of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.
Nowadays, trivia or quiz questions cover many varied topics and most of us still enjoy challenging our brains to come up with answers.
The origin of the word quiz has many possibilities. Some people think it might have originated in the Latin qui es? 'who are you?', the first question asked in oral examinations in Latin in grammar schools. Others say it comes from inquisitive.
The first recorded use was in 1752, when it meant an eccentric person or odd-looking thing. Jane Austen wrote in Northanger Abbey "Where did you get that quiz of a hat?".
There's a story that in 1791, Dublin theatre owner James Daly made a bet that he could enter a nonsense word into the language within 48 hours. He then instructed his staff to write the word quiz in huge letters on walls around Dublin. Soon everyone was asking what it meant.
I like this story but the word must have already existed at this date.
You readers probably do very well at quizzes because of all the trivia you pick up solving crossword clues.
Happy puzzling!
| Browse Previous Hello Columns |
|
| |
|
Christine's Hello 
