quarry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large open pit where stone, slate, or sand is dug out of the ground.

   The marble for the statue came from a quarry in Italy.

2. 2
   noun

   An animal or person being hunted or pursued.

   The fox finally escaped the hounds that had been chasing their quarry all day.

3. 3
   verb

   To dig stone or other materials out of a quarry.

   For centuries, workers quarried limestone from these hills.

Simplified etymology

The two main senses of quarry have different origins. The stone-producing sense comes ultimately from Latin quadrum “square,” from the practice of cutting stone into regular shapes for building. The sense “pursued animal” comes from Old French cuiree, based on Latin cor “heart.” In medieval deer hunting the term referred to the deer’s entrails placed on its hide as a reward for the hounds, and it could also denote a heap of deer carcasses or, by the late 16th century, a pile of dead bodies.

From Middle English quarere, from Medieval Latin quarreria (1266), literally a “place where stones are squared”, from Old French quarrière (compare modern French carrière), from Vulgar Latin *quadraria, from Latin quadrō (“to square”), itself from quadra (“a square”), from quattuor (“four”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary