Inquirers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who seek information or knowledge through questioning
2. People who actively pose questions to gather insights or clarify understanding
3. Those engaged in the act of inquiring, often with the intention of investigative exploration

Etymology: "Inquirers" is the plural of "inquirer," which is simply "inquire" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who inquires. The suffix is an old and productive one: English "-er" descends from Old English "-ere," which was itself used to form nouns for people doing an action, and it reaches back through Germanic and Latin "-arius" to a Proto-Indo-European root that also gave us the Latin-derived "-ary" and "-ier" family. The base word "inquire" is the more interesting half. It entered English through Old French "enquerre," which came from Latin "inquirere," built from "in-" (into) and "quaerere" (to seek). So an inquirer is, at root, someone who goes seeking into something. The Latin verb is the same source that gives English "query" and "question," which is why the three words sound and feel so closely related.

Synonyms: questioners, investigators, seekers