Etymology
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questionnaire (n.)

"list of questions by which information is sought from a select group," 1901, from French questionnaire "list of formal questions," from questionner "to question," (see question (v.)). Purists long resisted it, preferring the native formation questionary (mid-15c. as "a scholastic questioner"); see -ary.

Entries linking to questionnaire

question (v.)

late 15c., questiounen, "to inquire, ask, seek to know," from question (n.) and from Old French questioner "ask questions, interrogate, torture" (13c.), from question (n.). Hence "to dispute, doubt," by 1530s. Transitive sense of "inquire of by asking questions" is from late 15c. Related: Questioned; questioning. Alternative verb questionize is attested from 1847.

-ary 
adjective and noun word-forming element, in most cases from Latin -arius, -aria, -arium "connected with, pertaining to; the man engaged in," from PIE relational adjective suffix *-yo- "of or belonging to." The neuter of the adjectives in Latin also were often used as nouns (solarium "sundial," vivarium, honorarium, etc.). It appears in words borrowed from Latin in Middle English. In later borrowings from Latin to French, it became -aire and passed into Middle English as -arie, subsequently -ary.

updated on March 03, 2021

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Definitions of questionnaire from WordNet

questionnaire (n.)
a form containing a set of questions; submitted to people to gain statistical information;
From wordnet.princeton.edu, not affiliated with etymonline.

Dictionary entries near questionnaire

quest

question

questionable

questioner

questioning

questionnaire

quetzal

Quetzalcoatl

queue

queueing

quey

© 2001-2022 Douglas Harper