query meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

query

noun

UK /ˈkwɪə.ɹi/ · US /ˈkwɪɹ.i/

Etymology An anglicisation of quere, an obsolete variant form of Latin quaere, second-person singular present active imperative of quaerō (“seek, look for; ask”); perhaps suffixed with -y (“abstract noun”). Cognate with French quérir, Italian chiedere, Portuguese querer, Romanian cere, and Spanish querer. Compare question.

A question, an inquiry (US), an enquiry (UK).

The teacher answered the student’s query concerning biosynthesis.
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.1910, Emerson Hough, “The Gateway, and Some Who Passed”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 29:

A question mark.

His Glossary has ‘bouchen, to stop people's mouths,’; but this is followed by a query, to show that it was but a guess. I have shown, from the MSS. and other sources, that it should be bonched, i.e. bunched, bumped, knocked, smote.1886, Skeat, Address of the President to the Philological Society, Great Britain:
She had written in her diary: "I don't think I am in a concentration-camp??????", the queries growing larger and more numerous till they covered the entire page […]1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings:

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I refer you to your line above, where you use a query and a bang together.2006, Pip, “Re: Royal Enfield motorbike - why would anyone buy one?”, in rec.motorcycles (Usenet):

Computing, Databases, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A set of instructions passed to a database.

The database admin switched on query logging for debugging purposes.

Media, Publishing Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of query letter.

Although many agents accept email queries, check to see if they prefer mailed query letters.2006, Michael Larsen, How to Get a Literary Agent, Sourcebooks Inc., page 46:

Derived terms: antiquery, counterquery, interquery, intraquery, multiquery, non-query, querist, query-by-query, queryist, query language, query plan, query processing, querysome, query string, Structured Query Language
Hyponyms: doubt, subquery

query

verb

To ask a question.

To ask, inquire.

It’s queried whether there be any Science in the ſenſe of the Dogmatiſts: […]1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XX, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 188:
“You must have had an active life,” queried the shopkeeper, “before you retired?”1994, Dermot Healy, “As Gaelige”, in A Goat’s Song, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking, published 1995, →ISBN, part II (The Salmon of Knowledge), page 160:

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I tried that once in an AOL thing called "The Arena", I can't remember who the celebrity was, but I posed some divinely thoughtful, inspired, well-crafted question, and they chose one, instead, that querried^([sic]) her favourite colour, quelle banel.1997 August 16, PRINCESSPK, “Re: Opinions wanted for magazine article”, in alt.showbiz.gossip (Usenet):

To question or call into doubt.

The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:

Computing, Databases, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To pass a set of instructions to a database to retrieve information from it.

Linked tables can be accessed, queried, combined and reorganised much more flexibly and in a number of ways that may not be immediately predictable when the database is under construction.1999, Luciano Floridi, Philosophy and computing: an introduction, page 104:

Internet To send a private message to (a user on IRC).

if you know someone who is in the channel, you can query them and ask for the key.2000, Robert Erdec, “Re: Help; mIRC32; unable to resolve server arnes.si”, in alt.irc.mirc (Usenet):

Media, Publishing To send out a query letter.

Derived terms: overquery, queriable, querier, queryable, requery
Related terms: inquiry, querent, quest, question

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