The Etymology of Conquest
Conquest hides a quieter Latin verb than its meaning suggests. The Latin source is conquīrere, which originally meant to seek out, gather together, or procure — formed from com- (together, completely) and quaerere (to seek, ask). In ordinary classical usage it described searching for evidence, gathering provisions, or acquiring goods by effort. In Vulgar Latin the verb shifted toward acquisition by force, was reshaped as *conquaerere, and produced Old French conquerre with its modern military sense. The feminine past participle conqueste named the result — territory or trophy taken — and English borrowed both noun and verb in the late 13th century, just before they were applied retroactively to the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Latin root quaerere is unusually fertile in English: through different prefixes and Romance reshapings it gives quest, query, request, inquire, acquire, require, and conquest itself. Each preserves the underlying motion of seeking, however softly or violently the seeking is done.