Jane's words: quiz

from Northanger Abbey, Chapter 7

One of the great things about reading Jane Austen is her vocabulary. She uses words that have fallen out of use altogether, or else their meaning has metamorphosed into something close yet different.

Whilst reading Northanger Abbey recently, the use of this word jumped out at me as said by one of Austen’s classically irritating characters, John Thorpe.

quiz

I think I know what a quiz means. Austen knows this word too, but uses it, in a different way.

‘Where did you get that quiz of a hat, it makes you look like an old witch?’

Look up the word quiz, and as a noun, it means: a test of knowledge, between individuals and teams as a form of entertainment.

But the archaic use of it, as a noun, means: a practical joke or hoax.

So what Austen’s character here means is you are wearing a hat that is so ridiculous it’s a deliberate hoax.

Later in chapter 8, John Tho…