Etymologically
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require

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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of Boethius,[2] the late 14th century in Etymonline;[4] the OED's first example is from the 14th century.[6] This sense is obsolete.[4][6]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
  • 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