Other forms: acquired, acquiring, acquires
To acquire something is to get it and end up owning it. A museum acquires a painting at auction, a company acquires its smaller rival, and after two years in the same flat you have acquired three lamps, a bread maker and a cat.
Acquire also covers things nobody can sell you: you acquire a skill, a habit, an accent, a reputation. An acquired taste is one nobody enjoys on the first try, such as olives, strong cheese or free jazz. Doctors set acquired against inherited, so an acquired condition is one you picked up during life rather than one you were born with. The noun is acquisition, which names both the getting and the thing got. Acquire is a formal word: a friend describing their weekend says they got a new bike, not that they acquired one.
1verbobtainTo come to own or possess something.
“The gallery acquired the drawings from a private collection in Vienna.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
2verbacquireTo gain a skill, habit, quality or reputation over a period of time.
“She acquired her French from ten summers with her grandmother in Lyon.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
3verbdetectTo detect and lock onto a signal, a target or a set of data.
“The receiver acquires the satellite signal about thirty seconds after you switch it on.”
Also accepted in games: obtain, gain
Acquire arrived through Middle English acqueren and Old French aquerre from Latin acquirō, built out of ad-, meaning towards, and quaerō, to seek for. That seeking half is the same one inside quest, question and inquiry. Acquiring is what the seeking looks like when it works.
Latin
acquirō
Old French
aquerre
Middle English
acqueren
English, today
acquire
Built from
From Middle English acqueren, from Old French aquerre, from Latin acquirō; ad- + quaerō (“to seek for”). See quest.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA