inquisitor

/ɪnˈkwɪzətər/

Other forms: inquisitors

Inquisitor is what you call someone who asks questions in an aggressive way, like a prosecutor in a courtroom, or a parent who wants to know everything you did last night.

This word comes from 4th century Rome, where the Church hired religious detectives, called Inquisitors, to root out people who disobeyed the Church's rules. So inquisitors have always been aggressive, even though there's nothing particularly harsh or aggressive about the Latin root quærere, which simply means "ask" or "seek."

Definitions of inquisitor

1. noun

   a questioner who is excessively harsh
   synonyms: interrogator

   type of:

   asker, enquirer, inquirer, querier, questioner

   someone who asks a question