quarry

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkwɒɹ.i/ (UK); /ˈk(w)ɔɹ.i/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

Quarry “prey” is inherited from Middle English quirre, querre,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman quirreie, from Old French cuiriee,^[2][3][4] altered under the influence of cuir “hide” from coree “entrails”,^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *corāta, from Latin cor (“heart”).^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster and Random House derive it directly from cuir.^[5][6] Quarry “stone pit” is inherited from Middle English quarey, borrowed from Medieval Latin quareia, from quareria,^[2][3][4][6] from Old French quarriere, from Latin quadrum (“a square”), literally a place where stones are squared.^[2][3][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Parts of a deer's entrails placed on the hide and given to the hounds as a reward (c. 1320).^[7][3][4] The stone pit is recorded as a place name in 1266, and as a word before 1382.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The hunting word came to mean the bird flown at or killed by a hawk (1486),^[7][4] then the beast pursued by hounds or hunters (1612),^[7][4] and figuratively any object of pursuit (1615).^[7][3] The stone pit word gave the figurative sense “a rich source” and, in 1774, a verb, “to obtain stone from a quarry”,^[7][3][4][5] later “to extract by laborious searching” (1860).^[7]

Timeline

• 1266 – the stone pit, as a place name.^[3]
• c. 1320 – the hounds' share of a deer.^[7][4]
• before 1382 – a stone pit.^[3]
• 1486 – the bird killed by a hawk.^[7][4]
• 1612 – the animal hunted.^[7]
• 1615 – any object of pursuit.^[7][3]
• 1774 – verb, to dig from a quarry.^[7][3][4][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An animal or bird that is hunted; prey or game.
2. Any object of pursuit or search.
3. An open pit from which stone, slate or similar material is taken by cutting, digging or blasting.
4. A rich or productive source.
5. A diamond-shaped pane of glass or a square tile.

Verb

1. To obtain (stone) from a quarry; to make a quarry in.
2. To extract (facts, for example) by long and careful searching.

Word family

• quarrier
• quarryman
• quarry tile

Related words

• quadrangle
• square
• cuirass
• quarrel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press