Conquaerere

I decided to take a couple of ‘conker’ photographs today, and as I was playing around with the camera I wondered where the name conker originated…

Conkers (n.)  “child’s game played with horse chestnuts,” originally with snail shells, 1847, probably a variant of conquer. The goal was to break the other player’s item by hitting it with yours.

Conquer (v.)  c.1200, cunquearen, from Old French conquerre “conquer, defeat, vanquish,” from Vulgar Latin *conquaerere (for Latin conquirere) “to search for, procure by effort, win,” from Latin com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + quaerere “to seek, gain” (see query (v.)). Related: Conquered; conquering.

Not sure I fancy playing with snail shells 😉

Conquaerere I
Conquaerere II
Etymology from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

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