An unconfirmed story puts quizzing as old as pre-historic times. One cave-man asked another “Where is big tree that shakes and drops orange sweet things”. Upon giving the correct answer, the second caveman got a reward.* and thus began the history of quizzes.
Put simply, A Quiz is a sport, where contestants (either individuals or teams) try to answer a series of questions, usually increasing in difficulty within a short period of time1. The typical quiz usually consists of a preliminary round, where the large bulk of contestants are narrowed down to a smaller range of anywhere between 2 and 6. From there the questions usually proceed through various systems till only 1 victor remains.
* The fact that he was clubbed to death two minutes later over the reward is inconsequential
The first appearance of the word “Quiz” was in 1784 and means an odd person (hence leading to the word “quizzical”) in 1867, the word started to evolve into something meaning “A test” in the United States. It is thought that the word could be a corruption of the Latin words Qui es meaning “Who are you ? ” It may also come from the verb quiset, meaning “to question”
Quizzing evolved into a sport, mainly in 2 regions- English pubs were commonly known to host weekly quizzes, patrons would together contribute to the “pot” or prize money. In the United States, teachers were famous for holding “pop quizzes” based on course or subject material.
With the advent of Television and Radio, quizzing took on a new form- announcers would call out the questions, and contestants would enter their answers by calling in. With television, quiz shows became popular, contestants would be individual people coming up to win large prize monies, usually sponsored by a corporation. “Mastermind”2 and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”3 are popular examples.
With the advent of the Internet, multiple choice quizzes became popular also encompassing character assessment tests like IQ tests, Personality Quizzes etc.
Quizzing was quick to jump onto the social networking bandwagon. Sites like "Orkut"5 and "Facebook"6 are often used to spread news and information about quizzes.
"Twitter"7 Especially, many users suscribing to a twitter feed such as @twrivia recieve daily if not hourly questions to add to their repertoire.
Various creative works, including movies, books and songs have been created about quizzing. The most popular example being the recent academy award winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire"4, where a boy from an Indian slum becomes a millionaire overnight after winning a quiz show.
Today quizzing is a diverse sport, including many branches- General Knowledge, Popular Culture, Technology and Computers, Sports, Literature, Movies, History and just about everything under the sun.
Citations :
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(TV_series)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_and_A
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_wants_to_be_a_millionaire
5. http://www.orkut.com
6. http://www.facebook.com/
7. http://twitter.com/