search [ME] This is from the Old French verb cerchier from late Latin circare ‘go round’, from Latin circus ‘circle’. The main semantic strands are ‘explore thoroughly’ (search the premises) and ‘try to find’ (search out the truth), both of which have been present from the start. In research [L16th] the prefix re- is an intensifier of the meaning. The Old English equivalent seek is unconnected, going back to an Indo-European root shared by Latin sagire ‘perceive by scent’.