an official investigation by authorities, often by a coroner or judge, to determine the facts about a death or other serious matter.
From Old French 'enqueste,' derived from Latin 'inquisita,' the past participle of 'inquirere' meaning 'to inquire.' The legal term entered English during the Norman Conquest period.
The inquest system is one reason we know so much about medieval and ancient life—official records of deaths often included detailed descriptions of what people owned, what they ate, and how they lived. These death investigations became an unexpected historical goldmine.
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