Investigating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Looking into something carefully to uncover information or truth
2. Conducting a detailed examination to find out relevant details or evidence
3. Carrying out a thorough inquiry to gather facts and understand a situation

Etymology: "Investigating" is the present participle of "investigate," so the real story belongs to the verb. The root sits in Latin "vestigium," meaning "footprint" or "track," the same image that gives English "vestige," a trace left behind. Latin "investigare" built on that picture, meaning to track something down by following its footprints, and the English verb inherited the sense of patient pursuit that the image carries. The surprise is that English did not start with this word. Old English speakers had "undersēċan," literally "to search under or between," and that native term was displaced by the Latin-derived verb. The Latin noun "investigatio," meaning "a searching into," came first in English, and the verb was formed from it later, around 1510, by back-formation: speakers cut the verb ending off the noun and then added the verb-forming suffix "-ate" to create a new verb.

Synonyms: examining, exploring, inquiry, researching, probing

Antonyms: ignoring, neglecting, disregarding, overlooking, bypassing