Requisite

WORD OF THE DAY

requisite / adjective / REK-wuh-zut 

Definition

1: needed for a particular purpose 

2: essential, necessary

Examples

"Once the application process was formalized, the Institute received nearly two hundred applications from women all across the country; other women interested in applying had been turned away because they didn't have the requisite qualifications." 

— Maggie Doherty, The Equivalents, 2020

"More chile sauce, if you want a vinegary zing, is on the tables, along with the requisite paper towels. As for that stellar taco, it's made with the same flavorful carnitas with … a drizzle of avocado crema that sets off taste-tingling fireworks." 

— The Texas Monthly, 26 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Acquiring an understanding of where requisite comes from won't require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with Latin quaerere, which means "to ask" or "to seek." 

That word is ancestor to a number of English words, including acquire, require, inquiry, question, quest, and, of course, requisite. From quaerere came requirere, meaning "to ask again." 

Repeated requests can express a need, and the past participle of Latin requirere, which is requisitus, came to mean "needed" or "necessary." English acquired requisite when it was adopted into Middle English back in the 1400s.