Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s quiz is a challenge to find the odd word out, etymologically speaking. For example, which word doesn’t belong in the following group? Bigot, saloon, quiche, tornado. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Odd Word Out Word Game”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. And here comes our quiz guy, John Chaneski. Hi, John.
Hey, hello, Martha. Hello, Grant.
What’s up, bud?
I have a little quiz for you here. This is about loanwords.
You know, I’m always trying to come up with a different category each time.
This time we’re going to look at loanwords.
I’ll give you four English words at a shot that are loanwords from other languages.
Three of them will be from the same language, and the fourth will be the odd loanword out.
For example, if I say alcohol, assassin, billabong, checkmate, you would say the odd word out is?
Billabong.
Billabong, right?
Not from Arabic.
It’s not from Arabic.
It is Australian in origin.
Very good.
Let’s see how you do.
Here’s the first one.
Bigot, quiche, saloon, tornado.
Tornado.
Because it’s from Spanish.
The others are from French.
Yes.
Very good.
Alligator, bravado.
Guitar, stucco.
Stucco.
Guitar, I’m sorry.
No, I would say alligator.
Alligator is from, well, Spanish.
You know what they say, always go with your first guess unless it’s wrong.
But your first guess was right.
Stucco is correct.
Oh, is it from Italian?
It is from Italian, yes.
Very good.
The others are from?
Spanish.
Spanish is right.
Okay.
Here’s the next one.
Casino, fugue, umbrella, yacht.
Casino, fugue, umbrella, yacht.
Yes, that’s the magic password.
You win a million dollars.
And the door opens.
I’m going to say yacht.
Is that not German?
That’s correct.
Actually, it’s Dutch.
Okay, for hunter.
A little hunting boat.
Oh, okay.
Very good.
The others are?
Italian.
Yes, Italian.
Very good.
Maelstrom, slalom, smorgasbord, vodka.
Vodka.
Is?
Russian for a little water.
And the others are Swedish.
Very good.
Bungalow, ghetto, shampoo, thug.
Oh, ghetto.
Three of them come from Hindi and the other one comes from Italian.
Yeah, ghetto.
Yes, very good.
Ghetto is from the Italian and the rest are from the Hindi.
How about boondocks, gingham, jungle, tattoo?
Gingham, because the others are from Tagalog.
Or they’re from the Philippines, necessarily, right?
No, gingham is also Pacific Islander.
For real?
Yes, yeah.
Okay, let’s hear those again, because tattoo is from there.
Gingham, jungle, tattoo.
I guess jungle, then.
Yes, jungle is correct.
It’s a Hindi word.
I had a friend of mine whose wife is from the Philippines explain to me today the origins of boondocks and how American servicemen brought it over.
That’s right.
You guys were fantastic. Congratulations.
I like that one a whole lot, dude.
Always nice to talk to you. We’ll talk to you again next week.
Keep puzzling, all right?
You too, guys. Keep wording it up.
We’ll do. Bye-bye.
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