require

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /rɪˈkwaɪə/, US /rɪˈkwaɪ.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English requeren, later requiren,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French requerre (“to seek, ask, demand”),^[4][2] from Vulgar Latin *requaerere,^[4][2] from Latin requīrere (“to seek again, ask for”), altered after quaerere (“to ask, seek”),^[2][3] from re-, perhaps “repeatedly”, and quaerere.^[4][2] The spelling was later assimilated to the Latin.^[5] It is related to query, request and requisite.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ask someone a question, to inquire: about 1381, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[2] the late 14th century in Etymonline;^[4] the OED's first example is from the 14th century.^[6] This sense is obsolete.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries it still commonly meant “to ask or request”, a sense since taken over by request.^[4] Trench notes that it once lacked its present imperative force, quoting Henry VIII's will, which “requires and desires” the Virgin Mary to pray for him.^[7] “To need, stand in need of” and “to ask for as a right” are also from the late 14th century,^[4] and “to demand as necessary on general principles” from the early 15th century.^[4] “To demand that someone do something” is from 1751.^[4] Requirement, at first “a request” (1530), meant “something needed” from 1662.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1381 – to ask a question.^[2]
• late 14th century – to need; to demand as a right.^[4]
• early 15th century – to demand as necessary.^[4]
• 1530 – requirement, a request.^[2]
• 1662 – requirement, something needed.^[2]
• 1751 – to demand that someone do something.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To need; to have as a requisite.
2. To call for as necessary or obligatory; to demand.
3. To oblige or compel: all visitors are required to sign in.
4. (archaic) To ask for; to request.

Word family

• requirable
• requirer
• prerequire

Related words

• requirement
• requisite
• request
• query
• quest
• inquire

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker