Other forms: inquired, inquiring, inquires
To inquire is the formal word for asking for information. Inquire about, inquire within, please inquire.
It belongs to signs, letters and official contexts: inquire within, inquire at the desk. In British use, inquire and enquire were once neatly divided — enquire for asking a question, inquire for a formal investigation — and the distinction survives mainly in the noun, where a public inquiry is never an enquiry. American English uses inquire for both. Note inquiry, inquisitive, inquest.
1verbinquireTo ask for information, formally.
“I am writing to inquire whether the position advertised last week is still available.”
synonyms: ask, enquire
inquire is an asking.
Also accepted in games: enquire, ask
Latin inquirere is in plus quaerere, to seek. Query, question, quest and require come from the same seeking, and the spelling with i was restored to match the Latin.
Proto-Indo-European
*kʷeh₂- — to acquire
Proto-Italic
*kʷaizeō
Latin
inquīrō — to seek for
English, today
inquire
Built from
From Latin inquīrō (“to seek for”), composed of in- (“in, at, on; into”) + quaerō (“to seek, look for”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Italic kʷaizeō, from Proto-Indo-European kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”). Displaced Middle English enqueren (from Old French enquerre, of the same source) and native Middle English speir (“ask, inquire”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA