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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!mcvax!steven
From: steven@mcvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.nlang,net.flame
Subject: Re: misused abbreviations, e.g. "i.e."
Message-ID: <5811@mcvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-May-84 21:37:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcvax.5811
Posted: Fri May 18 21:37:15 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 20-May-84 00:23:30 EDT
References: <3264@fortune.UUCP> <77@ut-sally.UUCP> <150@iwpba.UUCP>
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 6

It is not widely known that the question mark "?" is a corruption of the
letter q followed by a full stop. This stood for the Latin imperative
"quaere", from the verb "quaerere", to ask, and apparently originates from
annotations in manuscript margins.

Quaere now occurs in English as "query".