Also 8 quis. [Of obscure origin: possibly a fanciful coinage, but it is doubtful whether any reliance can be placed on the anecdote of its invention by Daly, a Dublin theatre-manager. Senses 3 and 4 are app. from QUIZ v.1 1.
The anecdote is given by Smart in his Walker Remodelled, 1836, but is omitted in the ed. of 1840. The very circumstantial version in F. T. Porter’s Gleanings & Reminiscences (1875), 32 gives the date of the alleged invention as 1791; but this is later than the actual appearance of the word and its derivative quizzity.]
1. An odd or eccentric person, in character or appearance. Now rare.
1782. Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary, 24 June. He’s a droll quiz, and I rather like him.
1785. Span. Rivals, 8. Ay, he’s a queer Quis.
1793. in W. Roberts, Looker-on, No. 54 (1794), II. 311. Some college cell, Where muzzing quizzes mutter monkish schemes.
1818. Earl Dudley, Lett., 14 Feb. (1840), 196. Nor are we by any means such quizzes or such bores as the wags pretend.
1852. Mrs. Smythies, Bride Elect, xiii. If she really means to marry that quiz for the sake of his thousands.
1857. C. Brontë, Professor, iii. He was not odd—no quiz.
b. An odd-looking thing. rare–1.
1798. Jane Austen, Northang. Abb. (1850), 26. Where did you get that quiz of a hat?
† 2. = BANDALORE, q.v. Obs.
c. 1790. in Moore, Mem., I. 12. The Duke … was, I recollect, playing with one of those toys called quizzes.
1792. B. Munchausen (1799), II. xi. 137. She darted and recoiled the quizzes in her right and left hand.
a. 1833. Moore, Mem., I. 11. A certain toy very fashionable about the year 1789 or 1790 called in French a ‘bandalore’ and in English a ‘quiz.’
3. One who quizzes.
1797. The Quiz, No. 13. 85. Now, gentlemen, as you have taken to yourselves the name of Quizzes, I request to know [etc.]. Ibid. (1836), No. 1. 4/2. A true Quiz is imperturbable: therefore is Talleyrand the Prince of Quizzers.
1870. Q. Rev., July, 238. She could write letters to Horace Walpole (perhaps because she knew him to be a quiz) in a vein untinctured by narrowness or pharisaism.
1899. Eng. Hist. Rev., April, 36. Braving the ridicule with which it pleased the quizzes of the day to asperse the husband chosen for her.
4. A practical joke; a hoax, a piece of humbug, banter or ridicule; a jest or witticism.
1807. Antid. Miseries Hum. Life, 121. I was engaged a few nights ago … in a good quiz for a watchman.
1810. Scott, Fam. Lett., 14 April (1894), I. vi. 171. I am impatient to know if the whole be not one grand blunder or quiz. Ibid. (1826), Jrnl., 11 Feb. I should have thought the thing a quiz, but that the novel was real.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. lxiv. 189. Whipping in with a quiz or a witticism whenever he could get an opportunity.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 110. Frank said he was travelling for Rundell and Bridge, but I suspect that was only a quiz.
1850. T. A. Trollope, Impress. Wand., vi. 77. We have … a quiz on all and each of the newly-arisen tribe of journalists.
b. The act or practice of quizzing.
1819. Quizzical Gaz., No. 5/1. The Editor … declares this the only article in the Paper devoid of Quiz.
a. 1845. Hood, Tale Trumpet, xxx. You may join the genteelest party that is, And enjoy all the scandal, and gossip, and quiz.
1870. Green, Lett., III. (1901), 254. What a taste for quiz a Professorship seems to develop.
