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inquiry

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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EnglishWikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishenquery, from theOld French verbenquerre, fromLatininquīrō, composed ofin-(“in, at, on; into”) +quaerō(“I seek, look for”), of uncertain origin, but possibly fromProto-Italic*kʷaizeō, fromProto-Indo-European*kʷeh₂-(“to acquire”). Later respelled to conform to the original Latin spelling, as opposed to the Old French spelling.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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inquiry (countable anduncountable,pluralinquiries)

  1. The act ofinquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions;interrogation; aquestion or questioning.
  2. A search fortruth,information, orknowledge;examination of facts or principles; research;investigation;inquest.
    Scientificinquiry

Usage notes

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  • The spellinginquiry is more common, especially in American English, but also in British English.[1]
  • The 1926Fowler's Modern English Usage said thatinquiry should be used in relation to a formalinquest andenquiry to the general act of questioning, and said that British writers maintained this distinction. The Oxford English Dictionary, in its entry not updated since 1900, listsinquiry andenquiry as equal alternatives, in that order. Some British dictionaries, such asChambers 21st Century Dictionary, present the two spellings as interchangeable variants in the general sense, but preferinquiry for the "formal inquest" sense. In Australian English,inquiry represents a formal inquest (such as a government investigation) whileenquiry is used in the act of questioning (e.g.: the customer enquired about the status of his loan application). Both spellings are current in Canadian English, whereenquiry is often associated with scholarly or intellectual research.[2] American English usually usesinquiry.

Derived terms

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Translations

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the act of inquiring (by asking questions, etc)
research; investigation

References

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  1. ^Google Books Ngram Viewer
  2. ^See Pam Peters,The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, p. 282.
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