• querent •
Pronunciation: kwer-rênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Someone who consults saints, gods, mediums, fortune-tellers, asks them questions. 2. (Law) A plaintiff, complainant.
Notes: Here is a word we might confuse with querist "questioner, interrogator", both certainly related to question, however distantly. It is actually two words coincidentally pronounced the same in English (see Word History); both are lexical orphans.
In Play: The first sense is still commonly used in inquiries involving some form of magic: "In ancient Greece the Oracle was expected to answer any query from a querent." Again: "Superstition dictates that the reader of tea leaves should not be the querent him- or herself." The second, legal sense is rarely used today: "The case was between querent May I. B. Blunt and defendant Phil Anders."
Word History: Today we have two lexical cousins for the price of one—and a reasonable price at that! Both were copied from two similar Latin verbs: quaeren(t)s "seeking, inquiring", present participle of quaerere "to seek, look for" and queren(t)s, present participle of queri "to complain, lament, bewail". Latin built both verbs from PIE kwo-/kwe-, root of all interrogative pronouns, such as Sanskrit kah "who", Latin quo "where (to) and qui "who, which, what", Russian kto "who" and kuda "whereto", Serbian ko "who", Albanian kë "whom", Lithuanian kas "who, what" and kur "where", Hindi kya "what", Bengali ki "what", Marathi kaya "what", Nepali ke "what" and kina "why", and English what (pronounced [hwaht]), who, why, and where. (Today we thank the inquisitive mind of wordmaster William Hupy for two more fascinating Good Words.)
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