English
query
Query comes from Latin quaerō ‘seek, look for’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaerō‘seek, look for’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaere
- Englishearliest quotation 1661query
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaerō‘seek, look for’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaere
- Englishearliest quotation 1661query
Earliest quotation: 1661, Joseph Glanvill, London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […]: “It’s queried whether there be any Science in the…”
The story
An anglicisation of quere, an obsolete variant form of Latin quaere, second-person singular present active imperative of quaerō (‘seek, look for; ask’); perhaps suffixed with -y (‘abstract noun’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- ‘to acquire’
through Proto-Italic *kʷaizō
conquest, questionnaire, 10 more
through Latin quaerō ‘seek, look for’
acquisition, inquiry, quest, exquisite, inquisition, inquire, conquer, requisite, enquiry, inquisitor, 12 more
Today it means
noun A question, an inquiry (US), an enquiry (UK).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin quaerō / query