question

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkwes.tʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English questiun (later questioun), borrowed from Anglo-Norman questiun and Old French question (“question, difficulty; legal inquest, torture”), and directly borrowed from Latin quaestiō (“a seeking, inquiry, judicial investigation”),^[2][3] from quaerere (“to ask, seek”).^[2][4][5] It is related to query, quest and inquest.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A philosophical or theological problem: before 1200,^[3] or the early 13th century according to Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi, question meant any problem or matter, a thing asked, and the act of asking.^[3] Etymonline dates “an utterance meant to get an answer” and “a doubt, difficulty” to the early 14th century.^[2] Middle English also used it for a debate and for legal proceedings.^[2] A question of is from the early 15th century and no question, “undoubtedly”, from the mid-15th.^[2] The verb appears before 1470, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur,^[3] and “to doubt, dispute” is from the 1530s.^[2][8] A motion put to the vote in an assembly has been a question since 1549.^[8] In question is from the 1610s and out of the question from about 1700.^[2] The question mark is named from 1849,^[2] or 1869 according to Barnhart;^[3] it was earlier a question stop (1862) or an interrogation point (1590s).^[2] No questions asked is from 1879, in newspaper notices about lost property.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a philosophical problem.^[3]
• before 1325 – a thing asked, the act of asking (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• mid-15th century – no question.^[2]
• before 1470 – verb (Malory).^[3]
• 1530s – verb, to doubt.^[2]
• 1549 – a motion in an assembly.^[8]
• c. 1700 – out of the question.^[2]
• 1849 – question mark.^[2]
• 1879 – no questions asked.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sentence or expression that asks for an answer.
2. A subject or point open to dispute; an issue.
3. A difficult matter; a problem.
4. A point under discussion: the question of funding.
5. A motion put before an assembly for a vote.
6. Doubt or uncertainty: beyond question.

Verb

1. To ask questions of; to interrogate.
2. To express doubt about; to dispute.
3. To examine or analyse.

Word family

• questioner
• questioningly
• counterquestion
• questionary
• requestion
• subquestion
• unquestionable
• cross-question

Related words

• query
• quest
• inquest
• inquire
• questionnaire

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)