7 word origins

1. Skinflint - Flint stones were used in olden days to start a fire. The term skinflint derives from the idea that a miserly person would go to the extreme of skinning a flint, or using a flint until it was as thin as a skin, in order to save money.
2. Dashboard - Originally a wooden board or leather screen at the front of a horse-drawn vehicle to protect the driver and those sitting alongside from the mud splashed up or dashed by the horse's hooves. The name was retained for the partition between the front seat and the engine that replaced the horse when cars were invented.
3. Earmark - For centuries, farmers have marked their livestock as their property by cutting distinctive notches in the animal's ears. Earmark in this literal sense first appeared in English around 1591, but the use of earmark in the figurative sense 'to designate' arose only in the late 19th century.
4. Junk - Junk is the old sailor's name for rope-ends. It is derived from the Latin juncus, a bulrush, from the fibre of which in ancient days ropes were made.
5. Quiz - The manager of a Dublin theatre, a Mr Daly, laid a wager in 1780 that he would introduce a new word into the language within twenty-four hours. The bet was taken; and a mystery word appeared chalked on every wall and bare space in the city. Within a few hours all Dublin was speculating on what the mysterious letters meant. The word was quiz. The bet was won, and the word was absorbed into the English language.
6. Trivia - Derived from the Latin for 'crossroads': tri + via, which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streets in Italian cities, they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed.
7. Zany - The word comes from the Italian zanni, originally a traditional masked clown in the Italian commedia dell'arte. The buffoon was known as Zanni - an alteration of the name Giovanni (John), one of the traditional names for a clown. Zanni's role was to mimic the clown's tricks and generally to play the fool.