inquisitor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English inquisitour,^[2] borrowed from Old French inquisiteur, recorded in French from 1404, in Anglo-Norman inquisitour,^[3][4][5] or directly borrowed from Latin inquīsītor (“searcher, examiner, legal investigator”).^[5][6][2] The dictionaries differ on the route: the Middle English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary name only Latin, the OED only French, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged both.^[2][6][3][7] The Latin word is an agent noun from inquīsītus, the past participle of inquīrō (“to search into, inquire”),^[6][3] which is formed from in- (“into”) and quaerō (“to ask, seek”).^[5] Compare Italian inquisitore and Spanish inquisidor.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person holding some office of inspection or inquiry: the Middle English Dictionary's first quotation, from before 1402, couples inquisitours with friars of an order and tentatively glosses the word as an officer who inspects friaries or a begging friar.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "inspector, one who makes inquiries" to about 1400,^[5] while the OED's first record of "an inquirer" is from about 1504, in M. Beaufort's translation of Thomas à Kempis.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Latin inquīsītor covered the searcher, the examiner and the legal investigator,^[5][3] and English first used the word in the same general way, for one who looks into something, sometimes a prying person.^[3] From 1513 it also named an official charged with looking into crime or taxation.^[3] The sense tied to the Inquisition came with the papal tribunal against heresy: a text from before 1460 tells of the pope sending inquisitours of the preaching order into Lombardy,^[2] and the OED's record of an officer of the Inquisition starts in 1545, in Coverdale,^[3][5] with Inquisitor-General and Grand Inquisitor for the heads of such courts from 1659.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave both meanings, "one who examines judicially" and an officer of the "popish courts".^[8] From 1580 to 1797 the word could also mean a detective, informer or spy.^[3][4] Fielding applied it figuratively in 1735.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the modern pejorative use, for someone whose official investigation is harsh or biased and ignores individual rights.^[7] The feminine inquisitress (1727) is older than inquisitrix (1825).^[5]

Timeline

• before 1402 – an officer of inquiry, possibly one who inspects friaries.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense of an inspector to about 1400.^[5]
• before 1460 – a papally appointed investigator of heresy.^[2] The OED's first record of an officer of the Inquisition is from 1545, and Etymonline dates it to the 1540s.^[3][5]
• c. 1504 – an inquirer, investigator, prying person.^[3][7]
• 1513 – an official who inquires into crime, taxation and the like, in G. Douglas's translation of Virgil.^[3][9]
• 1580 – a detective, informer or spy (obsolete by 1797).^[3][9]
• 1659 – Inquisitor-General and Grand Inquisitor, the head of a court of the Inquisition.^[3]
• 1727 – feminine inquisitress.^[5]
• 1735 – transferred and figurative use, in Fielding.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who inquires or questions, especially searchingly or ruthlessly; an investigator: She faced her inquisitors across the committee table.^[10][7][3]
2. An official whose duty is to examine and inquire, such as a coroner or sheriff.^[7][3]
3. A member or officer of the Inquisition, the church court set up to find and punish heresy.^[10][7][3]
4. Someone who runs an official investigation harshly or with bias, with little regard for individual rights.^[7]
5. Grand Inquisitor, Inquisitor-General: the director or head of the court of the Inquisition in a country, especially Spain.^[3][4]
6. (obsolete, 1580–1797) A detective, informer or spy.^[3][4]

Word family

• inquisitorial
• inquisitorially
• inquisitress
• Grand Inquisitor

Related words

• inquire
• inquisition
• inquisitive
• query
• quest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins