interrogate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin interrogātus, the past participle of interrogō (“to ask, question, examine”),^[2][3][4][5] which is formed from inter- (“between, at intervals”) and rogō (“to ask”).^[2][3][6] Barnhart and Etymonline think it may instead, or also, be a back-formation from interrogation,^[7][3] recorded about 1390 in Chaucer.^[7][8] Skeat took the prefix here as "thoroughly".^[9] Etymonline explains the Latin verb for asking as apparently a figurative use of a verb meaning "to stretch out the hand", from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[3] The American Heritage Dictionary gives an early form enterrogate,^[10] and the Shorter Oxford also has the spelling enterrogate.^[11] The verb in Old French was interroger, the source of interroge, a now obsolete verb of the late 15th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To question closely: 1483, in Caxton's translation of Cato.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It widened in the 17th century to asking questions in general, as in Bacon's Henry VII (1622),^[2][12] a use the Shorter Oxford marks as chiefly legal.^[11] A short-lived use, "to ask about (something)", ran from 1600 to 1698.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered the transitive verb, "to examine; to question", and the intransitive one, "to ask; to put questions".^[12] The 17th century also had an adjective (1625) and a noun for a question (1633–49), both now obsolete.^[2] In the 20th century the word moved to machines: to cause a transponder to send a signal (1945), and to get information from a computer memory (1964).^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1483 – to question a person closely or formally.^[2][7]
• 1600 – to ask about something (obsolete by 1698).^[2]
• 1622 – intransitive, to ask questions.^[2]
• 1625 – adjective, asked about (obsolete).^[2]
• 1633 – noun, a question (obsolete by 1649).^[2]
• 1945 – to cause a transponder to transmit a signal.^[2]
• 1964 – to get information from a computer memory.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To question closely and formally, especially a witness, suspect or spy: Detectives interrogated the driver for six hours.^[13][5][2]
2. To ask questions, especially in law.^[2][11]
3. To examine in detail; to look into the causes or nature of something.^[5]
4. To send a signal to a transponder or similar device so that it responds.^[2][11][5]
5. To obtain information from a computer memory or file.^[2][11][5]
6. (obsolete, 1600–1698) To ask about something.^[2][11][5]

Word family

• interrogation
• interrogational
• interrogator
• interrogatee
• interrogatingly
• interrogee
• reinterrogate
• uninterrogated

Related words

• interrogative
• interrogatory
• rogation
• prerogative

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins