Final Jeopardy! Prep

Word Origins

Word Origins 2025-05-29 (Season 41)

PHRASE ORIGINS

An 1845 article called "Annexation" was the first appearance of this 2-word phrase implying inevitability

Word Origins 2025-05-06 (Season 41)

WORD ORIGINS

Fittingly, this adjective describing a hit-you-in-the-gut kind of feeling goes back to a Latin word for internal organs

Word Origins 2024-11-05 (Season 41)

PHRASE ORIGINS

In 1935 an article popularized this term for the part of the U.S. where residents were "depending on rain"

Word Origins 2024-10-09 (Season 41)

WORD ORIGINS

This word for one who cuts a trail comes from a name of a character in an 1840 novel

Word Origins 2023-07-28 (Season 39)

WORD ORIGINS

Theories on the origin of this, a style of journalism, include Cajun slang for unhinged jazz & Boston slang for a person on a bender

Word Origins 2023-07-25 (Season 39)

COMPOUND WORD ORIGINS

This compound word meant an astronomical object of exceptional brightness in 1910; it was soon applied to actors & athletes

Word Origins 2023-02-07 (Season 39)

WORD ORIGINS

This Sanskrit word referring to a spoken word or phrase comes from a word for "to think"

Word Origins 2023-01-30 (Season 39)

WORD ORIGINS

Originally relating to a story of suffering, this word now more commonly refers to strong emotion of any kind

Word Origins 2022-01-04 (Season 38)

WORD ORIGINS

From the Greek for "ring", the first ones were built by the Romans, including one that could hold 250,000

Word Origins 2021-08-09 (Season 37)

BEASTLY EPONYMS

A penguin species found in southern South America is named for this 16th century man whose crew were the first from Europe to see them

Word Origins 2020-11-09 (Season 37)

WORD ORIGINS

This word for a type of building or institution comes from Greek for a place sacred to a mythical group of 9

Word Origins 2019-11-28 (Season 36)

WORD ORIGINS

From a Sanskrit word for "descent", it's the form a god takes upon descending to Earth

Word Origins 2019-10-03 (Season 36)

PHRASE ORIGINS

The OED's first citation for this phrase referring to a region of the U.S. is from a Durant, Oklahoma newspaper in 1936

Word Origins 2019-07-12 (Season 35)

WORD ORIGINS

19th c. boots made with India rubber made one quieter, leading to this slang term for one whose job involves surveillance

Word Origins 2019-07-02 (Season 35)

WORD ORIGINS

Meaning cobbled together, it once referred to a temporary fix replacing a broken mast on a ship

Word Origins 2019-03-28 (Season 35)

FAMOUS PHRASE ORIGINS

One theory says a phrase for euphoria comes from plate No. 9 in an 1896 meteorological "atlas" of these

Word Origins 2019-03-06 (Season 35)

WORD ORIGINS

This 8-letter word for a reaction against a trend comes from an engineering term for a jolt caused by a gap in machine parts

Word Origins 2018-09-21 (Season 35)

COLOR ETYMOLOGY

This word for a gem & a shade of blue derives from the name of a Eurasian country from which gems came to Western Europe

Word Origins 2017-10-24 (Season 34)

ETYMOLOGY

This 8-letter word meaning "cultured" or "intellectual" originated with a phrenology concept

Word Origins 2016-02-22 (Season 32)

PHRASE ORIGINS

Widely parodied today, this 5-word phrase originally appeared on motivational posters in England during WWII

Word Origins 2015-04-01 (Season 31)

ETYMOLOGY

From the Latin for "to walk before", a famous example of this 8-letter word was written in 1787

Word Origins 2015-02-20 (Season 31)

WORD ORIGINS

Describing anything very showy, in architecture it refers to a style using curves like tongues of fire

Word Origins 2014-12-23 (Season 31)

WORD ORIGINS

In the mid-1960s, a decade after it first appeared in a holiday tale, this word came to be used for any mean killjoy

Word Origins 2014-06-16 (Season 30)

WORD ORIGINS

This noun meaning a secret plan comes from the Latin for "to breathe together"

Word Origins 2014-03-25 (Season 30)

MEDICAL ETYMOLOGY

Because of where in the body it is produced, this hormone's name comes from the Latin for "island"

Word Origins 2014-02-28 (Season 30)

MODERN DAY SUFFIXES

Dating from 1973, this 4-letter suffix indicates a person or thing that has become associated with public scandal

Word Origins 2013-12-30 (Season 30)

WORD ORIGINS

When evidence was lacking, juries of yore would reply with this Latin word meaning "we do not know"; now it means a dunce

Word Origins 2012-12-03 (Season 29)

PHRASE ORIGINS

This 2-word adjective for "going against accepted speech or conduct" first appeared in a 1933 translation from Izvestia

Word Origins 2012-09-27 (Season 29)

PHRASE ORIGINS

On February 22, 1918 Warren Harding said it is good to drink "at the fountains of wisdom inherited from" this alliterative group

Word Origins 2012-06-01 (Season 28)

WORD ORIGINS

From the French for "to set in the woods", this word refers to a type of attack

Word Origins 2012-04-13 (Season 28)

WORD ORIGINS

An exploited part of a law, originally it meant an opening in a castle wall used to look at or shoot at an enemy

Word Origins 2012-01-27 (Season 28)

WORD & PHRASE ORIGINS

After living in Honduras, O. Henry coined this term for a small country dependent on a single export

Word Origins 2012-01-11 (Season 28)

FOOD ETYMOLOGY

Keith Downey developed rapeseed into this cooking product, now a huge cash crop for farmers in Saskatchewan

Word Origins 2011-12-02 (Season 28)

WORD ORIGINS

This word for a friend comes from the Latin for "with whom you would eat bread"

Word Origins 2011-09-26 (Season 32)

FAMILIAR PHRASE ORIGINS

In medieval times, an act of bravery got you dubbed a knight & won you a pair of golden these

Word Origins 2010-10-28 (Season 27)

WORD ORIGINS

This 4-letter term for a religious group that holds distinctive beliefs comes from the Latin for "follow"

Word Origins 2010-10-01 (Season 27)

WORD ORIGINS

Like the name of a minor Roman god, this word for a caretaker comes from the Latin for "door"

Word Origins 2010-09-16 (Season 27)

WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS

Meaning "rapidly", this term began in England, referring to the speed with which the mail was delivered

Word Origins 2010-04-23 (Season 26)

WORDS FROM THE FRENCH

The first known use of this word in the U.S. was in an obituary for wealthy banker Pierre Lorillard in 1843

Word Origins 2010-03-26 (Season 26)

PHRASE ORIGINS

In 1945 George Orwell coined this 2-word phrase for "an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity"

Word Origins 2009-12-02 (Season 26)

PHRASE ORIGINS

Used in 1947's "U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey", this 2-word term became widely used again in NYC on 9/11/01

Word Origins 2009-07-01 (Season 25)

PHRASE ORIGINS

A 19th century gambling term meaning a desirable prize, its use in reference to NYC stems from a 1921 newspaper sports column

Word Origins 2009-05-28 (Season 25)

WORD ORIGINS

This word for a distinguishing mark of office or honor comes from the Latin for "badge"

Word Origins 2008-12-29 (Season 25)

PHRASE ORIGINS

Sails that ran free & fluttered without control caused a ship to stagger like a drunk, giving rise to this phrase

Word Origins 2008-02-27 (Season 24)

WORD ORIGINS

It's from the Latin for "hemp" because it was often made of hemp; add a letter & it means to take a survey

Word Origins 2007-11-19 (Season 24)

PHRASE ORIGINS

This 2-word phrase may be traced to a line in a Sherlock Holmes story, "The chaplain stood with a... pistol in his hand"

Word Origins 2007-07-04 (Season 23)

WORD ORIGINS

From the Old French for a soldier sent ahead to clear the way, today it refers to the first settlers of a region

Word Origins 2007-03-12 (Season 23)

WORD ORIGINS

Named for a Mediterranean country, this style of typography is based on a Renaissance script

Word Origins 2007-02-27 (Season 23)

PHRASE ORIGINS

Meaning "not working properly", it may date back to a character in the comic strip "The Katzenjammer Kids"

Word Origins 2007-01-19 (Season 23)

WORD ORIGINS

Well known to "Jeopardy!" fans, this 10-letter word originally meant a stew of many different ingredients