from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A question which cannot properly be given a one-word answer like “yes” or “no”.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Interrogation; inquiry.
First attested in Henry Cockeram’s 1623 English Dictionarie, first used in 1656; an adaptation of percontatiōn-, the stem of the Latin percontatiō ("questioning”, “inquiry"), from percontor ("I inquire”, “I interrogate"). (Wiktionary)