re·quire·ment | \ ri-ˈkwī(-ə)r-mənt \
Definition of requirement
: something required:
a: something wanted or needed : NECESSITY
production was not sufficient to satisfy military requirements
b: something essential to the existence or occurrence of something else : CONDITION
failed to meet the school’s requirements for graduation
re·quire | \ ri-ˈkwī(-ə)r \
required; requiring
Definition of require
transitive verb
1a: to claim or ask for by right and authority
b: archaic : REQUEST
2a: to call for as suitable or appropriate
the occasion requires formal dress
b: to demand as necessary or essential : have a compelling need for
all living beings require food
3: to impose a compulsion or command on : COMPEL
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: require v., -ment suffix.
Etymology: < require v. + -ment suffix. Compare post-classical Latin requirementum reclamation (11th cent.), Old French requerement , requierement request, petition, reclamation (1165), Old Occitan requerement demand, reclamation (14th cent.). Compare earlier request n.1, require n., requiring n., requisition n.
†1. The action of requesting something; a request. Cf. requiring n. Obsolete.
†2. Necessity. Obsolete. rare.
3.
a. Something which is required or needed; a want, need. Frequently in plural.
b. Something called for or demanded; a condition which must be complied with. Frequently in plural.
Forms: Middle English requeer, Middle English requeere, Middle English requir, Middle English requyr, Middle English reqwyre, Middle English–1500s requer, Middle English–1500s reqwyer, Middle English–1600s requere, Middle English–1600s requier, Middle English–1600s requyer, Middle English–1600s requyre, Middle English–1600s reqwire, Middle English– require, late Middle English rekere, 1500s requiere, 1500s reqwer, 1500s–1600s reqire, 1500s–1600s requuire, 1500s–1600s reqvire, 1500s–1600s reqyre, 1600s–1700s requare; Scottish pre-1700 raqueire, pre-1700 raquer, pre-1700 raquire, pre-1700 raquyr, pre-1700 raqweyr, pre-1700 requeir, pre-1700 requeire, pre-1700 requer, pre-1700 requerr- (inflected form), pre-1700 requeyr, pre-1700 requier, pre-1700 requir, pre-1700 requiriste (past tense, transmission error), pre-1700 requoyr, pre-1700 requyer, pre-1700 requyr, pre-1700 requyre, pre-1700 reqwer, pre-1700 reqweyr, pre-1700 reqwir, pre-1700 reqwyre, pre-1700 riqwer, pre-1700 1700s requayre, pre-1700 1700s– require, pre-1700 1800s requere, 1800s requar, 1800s requare, 1900s– requair.
Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French requer-, requere; Latin requīrere; French requerre.
Etymology: Partly < Anglo-Norman requer-, requir-, Middle French requier-, stressed stem of Anglo-Norman requere, requerer, requerrer, require, requirir, Anglo-Norman and Middle French requerre, requerir (French requérir ) (see below), and partly < classical Latin requīrere to try to find, look for, seek, to ask or inquire about, to ask, demand, to try to obtain or bring about, to expect to find, to need, (of things) to call for, need, to feel the loss of, miss, in post-classical Latin also to claim, make a demand for (7th cent.), to attack (11th or 12th cent.; < re- re- prefix + quaerere to seek, to ask: see queer v.1).
Anglo-Norman requere , requerer , etc., Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French requerre, Anglo-Norman and Middle French requerir is < an unattested post-classical Latin form *requaerere , alteration (after quaerere to seek, to ask: see queer v.1) of classical Latin requīrere (see above), and shows the meanings: to request (something) from (a person) (end of the 10th cent. in Old French, originally in specific sense ‘to pray to (Christ) for something’), to seek, search for (a person) (c1100), to attack (a person) (c1100), to ask (a person) a question (second half of the 12th cent.), to entreat (a person), to demand (something) (both end of the 12th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), (with inanimate subject) to demand or call for (something) as appropriate or suitable in a particular case (second half of the 12th cent.; c1377 used impersonally in il est requis à ce que ), to call upon (a person) to execute a legal duty, to demand (a thing) in court (both first half of the 13th cent.), to seek, search for, to desire (something) (c1240 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), (of a person) to stand in need of, to need (something) (14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman).
The later French forms requérir , †requerir result from association with quérir , †querir queer v.1
Compare Old Occitan requere (c1140; also requerre , requerer , requerir , requirir ), Catalan requerir (late 11th cent.; also †reqerre , †requirir ), Spanish requerir (early 12th cent.; also †requerer , †requirir ), Portuguese requerer (15th cent.; 14th cent. as †requerir ), Italian richiedere (end of the 13th cent.).
I. To make a request or demand of a person.
†1. To ask, request, or beseech (a person) to do something.
a. transitive. Without construction. Obsolete.
b. transitive. With infinitive. Obsolete.
c. transitive. With that-clause. Also occasionally with omission of that. Obsolete.
d. transitive. With imperative clause. Obsolete.
†2. transitive. To ask (a person) for something. With of or (occasionally) for. Obsolete.
†3.
a. transitive. To ask (a person) a question; to enquire of (a person) why, if, etc. Also: to interrogate, question. Obsolete.
b. transitive. With clause as object. To ask (a question) of a person. Obsolete.
c. transitive. To ask (a person) about something. With of. Obsolete. rare.
†4. transitive. To invite, call, summon (a person); spec. (originally and chiefly Scottish) to call upon (a person) to execute a legal duty or to attend a court of law. Frequently with to. Obsolete.
5.
a. transitive. To order, instruct, or oblige (a person) to do something. In later use frequently in passive.
Also with infinitive implied.
1904 L. Steffens Shame of Cities 72 They should be required to pay the city fine only once in two months.
b. transitive. With that-clause. Now archaic and rare.
In early use sometimes difficult to distinguish from sense 1c.
II. To request, demand, or need a thing.
6.
†a. intransitive. To make a request or demand. Obsolete.
b. transitive. To demand (a thing) authoritatively or as a right; to demand, claim, or insist on having (something) from or of someone.
†c. transitive. To ask for (something) as a favour; to beg, entreat, or request (a favour). Occasionally with of. Obsolete.
†d. transitive. With direct and indirect object. To ask for (a thing) from (a person); to demand (an action) of (a person). Cf. sense 2. Obsolete.
†e. transitive. With infinitive. To ask or request to have, know, or do something. Obsolete.
7.
a. To demand or call for (something) as appropriate or suitable in a particular case; to need for a particular purpose.
(a) transitive. With simple object and in adverbial clauses introduced by as.
†required to: requisite for (obsolete).
(b) transitive. With that-clause as object.
1861 S. Kerl Comprehensive Gram. Eng. Lang. ii. 123 Politeness usually requires that the speaker shall mention the addressed person first, and himself last.
b. Of a law, custom, a general principle, etc.: to demand as necessary or essential.
(a) transitive. With simple object and in adverbial clauses introduced by as.
1967 G. Vidal Washington, D.C. II. i. 58 He had been invited not because the President wanted him but because protocol required his presence.
(b) transitive. With that-clause.
2007 A. Theroux Laura Warholic x. 129 The levirate law in Judaism..requires that a childless widow marry the brother of her dead husband.
c. With anticipatory or non-referential subject: there is need for (a thing or person) in order to achieve some purpose.
(a) transitive. it requires. (Chiefly with infinitive or (occasionally) for and clause indicating the purpose.) Cf. it needs at need v.2 2c.
1963 Connecticut Hist. Soc. Apr. 64 It requires a good deal of scholarly courage to undertake a study of..the celebrated Underground Railroad of a century ago.
(b) transitive. there requires. (Sometimes with infinitive indicating the purpose.) Cf. there needs at need v.2 2a.
1914 Ann. Rep. Comm. Dict. Columbia I. 280 The present hospital laundry is situated in the female workhouse and there requires a separate boiler and engineer to give service.
d. transitive. To depend on for success or survival; to stand in need of; to need. Cf. need v.2 7.
1991 ‘W. Trevor’ Two Lives (1992) xxix. 210 More than anything else, Elmer requires a drink.
8. transitive. With infinitive. Cf. need v.2 10.
a. Of a thing: to call for or be subject to a necessity to do something.
1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects iii. 72 The larvæ, when they hatch, are true aquatics possessing many filamentous gills, and not requiring to come to the surface for air.
b. Of a person: to wish or feel a need to do something.
a1878 B. Taylor Stud. German Lit. (1879) 104 This is all of the great migratory movement which we require to know.
c. With passive infinitive. Of a thing: to need to be subjected to a particular action. Of an action: to need to be performed.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 97 1298/1 This chronic infection which required to be differentiated from tuberculosis, syphilis and even psoriasis.
†9. intransitive. To be requisite or necessary. Cf. need v.2 3. Obsolete.
†III. To seek or pursue a person or thing.
10.
a. transitive. To seek, search for; to desire. Obsolete.
b. transitive. To attack. Obsolete. rare.
c. transitive. To pursue, investigate, or research (a question). Also intransitive with into. Obsolete. rare.
late 14c., requeren, “to ask (someone) a question, inquire,” a sense now obsolete, from Old French requerre, requerir “seek, procure; beg, ask, petition; demand,” from Vulgar Latin *requaerere, from Latin requirere “seek to know, ask, ask for (something needed),” from re-, here perhaps meaning “repeatedly” (see re-), + quaerere “ask, seek” (see query (v.)). In some later English senses probably directly from Latin.
Still in 16c.-17c. commonly “to ask or request (to have or do something),” but this original sense of the word has been taken over by request (v.).
Also from late 14c. as “to stand in need of, want; to need for some end or purpose.” The sense of “demand that (someone) do (something)” is from 1751, via the notion of “to ask for imperatively, or as a right” (late 14c.). The meaning “demand as necessary or essential on general principles” is from early 15c. Related: Required; requiring.
