Word of the Day

: August 1, 2023

perquisite

noun PER-kwuh-zut

What It Means

Perquisite refers to something extra that someone receives in addition to regular pay for doing a job. Perks, as in “job perks” is short for perquisite.

// Her fancy new job came with several perquisites, including use of the company’s jet.

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perquisite in Context

“With Zoom meetings ... there are a few traditional sectors and work areas wherein remote working has been quickly adopted. This includes marketing, advertising, and IT services. However, there have been a few areas where remote working was a possibility and perquisite even before the pandemic struck the world.” — Shalin Parikh, The Financial Express (India), 13 July 2021

Did You Know?

Looking to acquire a job loaded with perquisites, or perks (a synonym of perquisites)? Don’t give up the search! Make plenty of inquiries, send out an exquisitely crafted résumé, follow up with queries, and be sure to meet most of the prerequisites of the job description. Your quest may result in your conquering of the job market. After all, perquisite comes from the Latin word perquirere, which, in turn, is from the prefix per-, meaning “thoroughly” and the verb quaerere, meaning “to ask” or “to seek.” It’s not surprising that several other words in this paragraph come from quaerere as well—acquire, inquiries, exquisitely, queries, conquering, quest, and, of course, perk, which was formed by shortening and altering perquisite. Quaerere is also an ancestor of prerequisite, so we don’t blame you if you mix up perquisite and prerequisite. You can tell the difference by remembering that a prerequisite can be a requirement needed before getting a job (pre- means “before”), while a perquisite is something extra you get after you’ve been hired.