What is the original meaning of the word "quiz"?

The first attested use of the word is from 1781 and means an odd person. This sense survives today in the word quizzical. It was also used in the term quizzing glass, a common accoutrement of British Regency dandies. It later acquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.

The Oxford English Dictionary attests the use of the verb quiz to mean "to question or interrogate", with a reference from 1843: "She com back an' quiesed us", which could be a clue to its origin. The American Heritage Dictionary says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning "to question".