Quizzical
This adjective means seeming to ask a question without saying anything: expressing slight uncertainty or amusement. Its source is from the great Spanish novel “Don Quixote,” whose title character is given to unrealistic schemes and great chivalry. In the middle of a recession and high unemployment, it would be quixotic to imagine that you could quit your job and find another easily.
Origin:
The word is said to have its origin in the 18th Century, from the word quiz, which referred to an odd person. Over centuries, the meaning of the word quiz came to mean question, and the adjective quizzical too became associated the way it is now. ‘Quiz’ was also used as a name for a kind of toy, something like a yo-yo, which was popular around 1790. The word is nevertheless hard to account for, and so is its later meaning of ‘to question or interrogate’. This emerged in the mid-19th century and gave rise to the most common use of the term today, for a type of entertainment based on a test of a person’s knowledge.
Example:
She wore a quizzical look as she walked towards me.
There was a quizzical expression on his face.
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