🗣️ Slang And Neologisms Trivia Questions & Answers
Below are 30 free slang and neologisms trivia questions with answers — part of Language trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Language quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Slang And Neologisms trivia questions
Q1. Which portmanteau blends 'web' and 'seminar' for an online seminar?
Answer: Webinar
💡 OED traces written use of 'webinar' back to 1997, a year before it was trademarked.
Q2. Which blend joins 'chill' and 'relax' into one lazy-day verb?
Answer: Chillax
💡 OED's earliest print sighting of 'chillax' dates to a 1994 online post.
Q3. Which portmanteau names a plastic utensil blending 'spoon' and 'fork'?
Answer: Spork
💡 The word appeared in an 1909 dictionary supplement decades before the familiar plastic design was patented in 1970.
Q4. Which two-word phrase mocks older generations' outdated opinions?
Answer: OK boomer
💡 It went viral in October 2019 after appearing in a TikTok clapping back at an older man's rant.
Q5. Which self-portrait word was named Oxford's 2013 Word of the Year?
Answer: Selfie
💡 Oxford clocked the word's usage spiking 17,000% in a single year before it won.
Q6. Which suffix, from a 1970s scandal, now tags any controversy?
Answer: -gate
💡 Watergate itself was named for a DC office complex, once home to riverside concerts.
Q7. Which word's two halves mean 'picture' and 'character' in Japanese?
Answer: Emoji
💡 Its resemblance to the English word 'emotion' is a pure coincidence of sound.
Q8. Which fantasy-book coinage for a non-wizard entered the OED in 2003?
Answer: Muggle
💡 Rowling built the word by softening 'mug' — old British slang for an easily-fooled person.
Q9. Which blend of 'guess' and 'estimate' names a rough, informal calculation?
Answer: Guesstimate
💡 The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for the word is from an 1904 Chicago Tribune article.
Q10. Which portmanteau names the late-morning meal combining breakfast and lunch?
Answer: Brunch
💡 British writer Guy Beringer coined it in an 1895 essay literally titled 'Brunch: A Plea.'
Q11. Which blend of 'hungry' and 'angry' entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018?
Answer: Hangry
💡 Its earliest known print use actually dates back to 1956, in a psychoanalysis journal.
Q12. Which biologist coined 'meme' in his 1976 book on genes?
Answer: Richard Dawkins
💡 Dawkins shortened the Greek 'mimeme' so it would rhyme neatly with 'gene.'
Q13. Which word did a 1999 blogger jokingly shorten from 'weblog'?
Answer: Blog
💡 Peter Merholz was just being silly, splitting 'weblog' into 'we blog' — it stuck anyway.
Q14. Blending 'iPod' and 'broadcast' gave English which 2004 word?
Answer: Podcast
💡 Coiner Ben Hammersley also floated 'audioblogging' and 'GuerillaMedia' as rival names.
Q15. Which 1920s American slang phrase praised something as excellent?
Answer: The bee's knees
💡 The same nonsense-slang wave from the Jazz Age produced all of these animal phrases.
Q16. Which slang word for 'excellent' comes from the jazz phrase 'in the groove'?
Answer: Groovy
💡 The underlying word 'groove' first meant the spiral cut in a phonograph record.
Q17. Which surfing slang word describes waves as both awesome and terrifying?
Answer: Gnarly
💡 It grew out of 'gnarled,' an 18th-century word for knotted, twisted wood.
Q18. Google's founders picked their name by misspelling which math term?
Answer: Googol
💡 A googol is 1 followed by 100 zeroes — the number the misspelling honors.
Q19. Junk email got its 'spam' nickname from which comedy troupe's sketch?
Answer: Monty Python
💡 In the sketch, Vikings drown out the dialogue by chanting the word over and over.
Q20. Blending 'motor' and 'hotel,' which word named a 1925 roadside inn?
Answer: Motel
💡 That first-ever motel charged guests just $1.25 a night.
Q21. Which blend of 'friend' and 'enemy' describes a rivalrous 'friend'?
Answer: Frenemy
💡 Despite feeling very modern, the OED traces the word back to an 1891 Kansas newspaper.
Q22. Which blend word names a vacation spent relaxing at home?
Answer: Staycation
💡 The word actually surfaced in a 1944 wartime beer advert, decades before its 2008 revival.
Q23. Blending 'Bombay' and 'Hollywood' names which Hindi-language film hub?
Answer: Bollywood
💡 The naming scheme actually borrowed from 'Tollywood,' a 1930s nickname for Kolkata's Bengali film industry.
Q24. Which portmanteau names skinny denim-look leggings first sold in 2009?
Answer: Jeggings
💡 The Daily Mail's 2009 use is the OED's earliest recorded citation for the word.
Q25. Which 1960 blend of 'cybernetic' and 'organism' named a human-machine hybrid?
Answer: Cyborg
💡 Its coiners, Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, were imagining bodies engineered for spaceflight.
Q26. Which term, Oxford's 2016 Word of the Year, describes facts losing sway over emotion?
Answer: Post-truth
💡 Its usage spiked roughly 2,000% in 2016 amid the Brexit vote and the US election.
Q27. Which slang shortening of 'suspicious' predates the game Among Us by decades?
Answer: Sus
💡 British police were already using it as slang for a suspect back in the 1930s.
Q28. Legend claims a Dublin theatre manager coined which word via an 1791 bet?
Answer: Quiz
💡 The word was actually already in use before 1791 — the bet story is likely a myth.
Q29. The letters 'OMG' first appeared in a 1917 letter to which statesman?
Answer: Winston Churchill
💡 The letter sat unnoticed for nearly a century until OED lexicographers dug it up.
Q30. Which 2016 portmanteau blended 'Britain' and 'exit' for a landmark referendum?
Answer: Brexit
💡 'Grexit,' coined for a possible Greek euro exit in 2012, actually inspired the word 'Brexit.'
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