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inquiry- query- querulous

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:33 pm
by William Hupy
I have an inquiry about the Spanish infinitive for quere, which means, "to want". Does our "inquiry" share the Latin root? What is that root? My Latin dictionary reveals "quercus", which is oak and then querela, which means "complaint". Is the latter Latin root the same for inquiry, query and querulous?

Re: inquiry- query- querulous

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:42 pm
by Slava
Here's the Doc's treatment of querulous, which doesn't mention oak. I'd say they are different roots.

Querulous comes from PIE *kwes-, whereas query comes from PIE *kwo-.

Re: inquiry- query- querulous

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:12 pm
by Perry Lassiter
The Sp infinitive is querer, as virtually all end in r. It's a bit irregular and declines as quiero, quieres, quiere, but in the plural it reverts to queremos etc. The word means more than want, and can instead mean to like or even to love. I've noted that often a senorita will tell her caballero "te quiero" rather than "te amo." That may be regional. The Latin infinitive, I think, would be querere, but I haven't checked.

Re: inquiry- query- querulous

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:42 pm
by Philip Hudson
The Latin roots of enquire are "in" meaning, in this case, into, and "quaerere" meaning to ask or to seek. The Spanish word "querer" probably comes from the same Latin root, although I am just observing on this one. I can believe the Latin word "querela" comes from the same root. Shipley suggests a PIE root kuere meaning to ask or to seek. As Slava says, querulous has a different root altogether. Perry's observation that "te quiero" is often used rather than "te amo" to mean, "I love you", is good in TexMex. I don't know about the Latin for oak, but I do know the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.

Consider quest, question, query, etc. But not equestrian. Note that the letter k could be substituted for q if we had a q-less alphabet.

Re: inquiry- query- querulous

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:37 pm
by William Hupy
The Sp infinitive is querer, as virtually all end in r. It's a bit irregular and declines as quiero, quieres, quiere, but in the plural it reverts to queremos etc. The word means more than want, and can instead mean to like or even to love. I've noted that often a senorita will tell her caballero "te quiero" rather than "te amo." That may be regional. The Latin infinitive, I think, would be querere, but I haven't checked.
Thanks, I missed that. The Spanish infinitive is in fact querer.