Triggered by an interesting but speculative and open-ended discussion in a scientific blog article, I want to ask what the meaning of research is/was according to its etymological history. Maybe the knowledge here and wizard-like tools like ngram can shed more light on this question, at least I would like to see how people interpret/vote research. Please do not just simply reword different theories in this blog article, but add some traceable clues or a analysis how the meaning of the word changed gradually.
Learn English – Etymology of “research”
etymologymeaning
Best Answer
The OED says:
So it appears the English was, if not borrowed from the French, at least modelled on it; and the French word already had something like the modern meaning.
Under "re-" the OED says: "The original sense of re- in Latin is ‘back’ or ‘backwards’, but in the large number of words in which it occurs it shows various shades of meaning ... ", but it does not give a meaning specifically which would account for the sense of "rechercher/research"