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Origin and history of asking

asking(adj.)

c. 1200 (replacing Old English ascunge), present-participle adjective from ask (v.). Asking price is attested from 1755. To be asking for it (it = "trouble, injury," etc.) is from 1909.

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to asking

ask(v.)

Middle English asken, from Old English ascian "ask, call for an answer; make a request," earlier ahsian, from Proto-Germanic *aiskojanan (source also of Old Saxon escon, Old Frisian askia "request, demand, ask," Middle Dutch eiscen, Dutch eisen "to ask, demand," Old High German eiscon "to ask (a question)," German heischen "to ask, demand"), from PIE *ais- "to wish, desire" (source also of Sanskrit icchati "seeks, desires," Armenian aic "investigation," Old Church Slavonic iskati "to seek," Lithuanian ieškau, ieškoti "to seek").

The form in English was influenced by a Scandinavian cognate (such as Danish æske); the Old English would have evolved by normal sound changes into ash, esh, which was a Midlands and southwestern England dialect form. Modern dialectal ax is as old as Old English acsian and was an accepted literary variant until c. 1600. Related: Asked; asking.

Old English also had fregnan/frignan which carried more directly the sense of "question, inquire," and is from PIE root *prek-, the common source of words for "ask" in most Indo-European languages (see pray). If you ask me "in my opinion" is attested from 1910.

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    Trends of asking

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    request
    mid-14c., requeste, "act of asking for a favor, service, etc.; expression of desire for something to be granted or done," from Old French requeste (Modern French requête) "a request," from Vulgar Latin *requaesita, from Latin requisita (res) "(a thing) asked for," from fem. of re
    catechize
    "instruct orally by asking questions and receiving answers" (and offering explanations and corrections), especially "to instruct...
    beg
    As a courteous mode of asking (beg pardon, etc.), it is attested by c. 1600. Of dogs, by 1762....translates Latin petitio principii, and means "to assume something that hasn't been proven as a basis of one's argument," thus "asking...
    interrogative
    "asking or denoting a question," c. 1500, from Late Latin interrogativus "pertaining to a question," from interrogat-, past...
    plaint
    Sense of "lawsuit, legal complaint, statement of grievances made to a court for the purpose of asking redress" is from late...
    precarious
    word, "held through the favor of another," from Latin precarius "depending on favor, pertaining to entreaty, obtained by asking...
    Catch-22
    The catch (n.) is that a bomber pilot is insane if he flies combat missions without asking to be relieved from duty, and...But asking to be relieved from duty indicates sanity and thus he must keep flying missions....
    query
    1530s, quaere "a question," from Latin quaere "to ask, inquire," "much used as a marginal note or memorandum to indicate a question or doubt, and hence taken as a noun" [Century Dictionary], second person singular imperative of quaerere "to seek, look for; strive, endeavor, striv
    quest
    c. 1300, "an inquest, a judicial inquiry;" early 14c., "a search for something, the act of seeking, pursuit" (especially in reference to hounds seeking game in the hunt), from Old French queste "search, quest, chase, hunt, pursuit; inquest, inquiry" (12c., Modern French quête), p
    address
    early 14c., "to guide, aim, or direct," from Old French adrecier "go straight toward; straighten, set right; point, direct" (13c.), from Vulgar Latin *addirectiare "make straight" (source also of Spanish aderezar, Italian addirizzare), from ad "to" (see ad-) + *directiare "make s

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