Recently, I had a debate over the two words enquire and inquire. If there is no difference, then why the different spellings? My argument was that to enquire is a private matter, not one of great public interest, just something you do to find relevant information to assist yourself. To inquire, was a public research into some matter of interest to a wider group, for example a nation.

I was offered many other reasonings, such as the original was enquire but the modern day world has taken a more literal consequence of the word and put the phonetic inquire instead. Or inquire is a legal term.

What are your views? And can anyone provide me with a logical explanation as to what they propose the bizarre reasoning behind these two words is?


Leaving you Puzzled,
Lexi

Haere mai, lexxzi, kei te pehea koe? It's so nice to have someone else from the non-penal side of the Tasman here, I'm even prepared to magnanimously forgive you for being a citizen of Banksville. As to your inquiry, MerriamWebster, a USn dictionary I believe, lists enquiry as a mere variant of inquire. Chambers says at enquire, "See inquire." It seems that our word comes from Old French enquerre which in turn comes from Latin inquirere, so perhaps the alternate spellings a result of the sort of duplicate importation that gave us royal and regal. Or perhaps, I am simply a gibbering loon from the unknown wilderness south of the Bombays.
Noho ora mai, ka kite.

Yep, choose yer poison and use it. There's no substantive difference between the two. Used to be that immigration applied to people coming into the country and emigration to people leaving it. Like me, f'rinstance. But not now. They're just totally interchangeable. Depends on whether you're more comfortable typing "i" or "e".

Someone said that there was another Zilder on the board. But you're from Auckland, I see, so there's still only sjm.

And, of course, in the case of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The National Enquirer, it's like comparing the New York Times to toilet paper. But enquiring minds want to know tabloidture, I guess.

Welcome, lexxzi! Sounds like you'll fit right in with all our resident word addicts here! But you might not want to let Hev, stales, paulb, or doc_comfort know where you're from for awhile...they're all your admiring neighbors from OZ!

Welcome aBoard, Lexi--nice to have you!
===========================================================

Someone said that there was another Zilder on the board. But you're from Auckland, I see, so there's still only sjm.
Ah, yes, CK. It is a well-known fact, I believe, that Aughland is your favorite city...

Whoa, Jackie! Could you do us old folks a favor and go back and edit out a few =?

Oh, Honey, I'm sorry--that's just my way of showing visually that I have begun a new, unrelated topic. A dividing line, as it were. I started that back when it was being pointed out regularly that I was making a lot of posts. Cuts down the numbers, don'tcha know. And...whattya mean, old folks??

Yeahbut®, if you'd go back and delete maybe 6 of those =s, your dividing line would still be there but the screen would go back to normal width.

I used to think of inquire as the USn/Canadian spelling and enquire as the UK spelling. I also sort of assumed that Australasians followed the UK spelling, as is often the case with spelling (and obscenities ).

Having just done a quick 'n dirty search on the BBC, it looks like it holds true that Brits much prefer the "e" at the front. But sounds like I'm wrong about Australasians following suit. Interesting.

There are no Zildian rules that I can remember about in- vs en-. As I said earlier, that wasn't true of immigration and emigration at one point. I'm a nitpicker when it comes to marking essays (and thank some power not here that I don't have to do that any more) but I would never have picked on in- being used instead of -en, or vice versa. Or imm- vs -em for that matter.

And I see "inquire" used here quite a lot, so maybe it's a regional thang. You live in Essex, doncha? manfully resisting the urge to make cracks about Essex men and Essex girls ...

maybe it's a regional thang.

Hmmm, maybe. But it's usually safe to take BBC English as the standard, albeit a slightly poncy one.

You live in Essex, doncha?

Down Saaath in Sussex, mate. Biiiiiig difference!

Hmmm...I think I tend to use en for the verb, but when it becomes a noun I would use in (inquiry). I get the feeling that's an arbitrary distinction I made up some time ago and now stick with.

Emigrate and immigrate are, of course, quite different things. They are as different as imply and infer or bring and take.

And The Survey Said...

1,680,000 people on Google voted for "INQUIRE"
while only...
697,000 people, mostly Brits and readers of the National Enquirer, voted for "ENQUIRE".

Makes you think.

Geez, Milum, you'd think there'd be more Enquiring Minds Wanting to Know out there...

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/news.cfm

697,000 people, mostly Brits and readers of the National Enquirer, voted for "ENQUIRE"

Mostly Brits?! The first result is the Cincinnati Enquirer. Well, it is when you Google "Enquirer", which, strangely, garners many more hits than "enquire." I don't get 697,000 for either of them.