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inquisitive

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Etymology and origin of the English word inquisitive

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1386 Chaucer, Miller's Prologue More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Old French inquisitif via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin inquīrō

Pronunciation

  • /ɪŋˈkwɪzətɪv/, /ɪnˈkwɪzətɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English inquisitif,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French inquisitif,[5][3][4] from Late Latin inquīsītīvus (“making inquiry”),[3][5] a word recorded in Boethius,[5] from Latin inquīsītus, the past participle of inquīrō (“to seek after, search for, examine”),[4][5][3] with the suffix -īvus.[6][7] The Middle English Dictionary sets Medieval Latin first and only queries Old French as a source.[2] Compare Italian inquisitivo.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Curious about something: in Chaucer's Miller's Prologue, "An housbonde shal nat been Inquisityf / Of goddes pryuetee nor of his wyf", about 1386 in the OED,[5] about 1390 in the Middle English Dictionary,[2] and late 14th century in Etymonline.[3]

Semantic evolution

The first records already warn against curiosity: Chaucer's husband should not pry into God's secrets or his wife's, and Gower says he does not like to be inquisitif about another man's life.[2] The neutral sense, of an inquiring turn of mind, eager for knowledge, is recorded from before 1500,[5] and the openly unfavourable sense, impertinently curious, from More in 1529; the OED calls this the usual sense now.[5] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "curious; busy in search; active to pry into any thing".[8] Both senses remain current: Collins puts excessive curiosity first and eagerness to learn second,[9] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged leads with a disposition to examine and research.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – curious about something, in Chaucer's Miller's Prologue.[5]
  • before 1500 – of an inquiring turn of mind, eager for knowledge.[5]
  • 1529 – unduly curious, prying, in More's Dialogue.[5]
  • 1589 – noun, an inquisitive person, applied by Puttenham to the rhetorical figure erotesis.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Eager to learn or to find things out; given to research and questioning: an inquisitive pupil who took the radio apart.[9][6][5]
  2. Too curious, especially about other people's affairs; prying: inquisitive neighbours at the fence.[9][5]

Noun

  1. An inquisitive person.[6][5]

Word family

  • inquisitively
  • inquisitiveness
  • uninquisitive

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Inquisitive.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/inquisitive. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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