Editing Quiz (section)

==Etymology==
The earliest known examples of the word date back to 1780; its etymology is unknown, but it may have originated in student slang. It initially meant an "odd, eccentric person"{{efn|The now-disused word "quiz", which also referred to an "odd person" and has a likewise obscure origin, dates back from about the same time.<ref>{{Cite OED|quoz, n. (and int.)|156931}}</ref>}} or a "joke, hoax". Later (perhaps by association with words such as "inquisitive"), it came to mean "to observe, study intently", and thence (from about the mid-19th century) "test, exam."<ref>{{Cite OED|quiz, n.|156832}}</ref><ref>{{Cite OED|quiz, v.1|156834}}</ref>

There is a [[Folk Etymology|well-known myth]] about the word ''quiz'' that says that in 1791, a Dublin theatre owner named [[Richard Daly]] made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within 24 hours. He then went out and hired a group of [[street children]] to write the word "quiz", which was a [[nonsense word]], on walls around the city of [[Dublin]]. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning (since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test), and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-qui1.htm|title=World Wide Words: Quiz|work=World Wide Words|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010406074752/http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-qui1.htm|archive-date=6 April 2001|url-status=live}}</ref> However, there is no evidence to support the story, and the term was already in use before the alleged bet in 1791.