English · Idiom Historical

pilate asked

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

Quidest veritas? And then some other matter took him in the head, and so up he rose and went his way before he had his answer. He deserved never to find what truth was. — BP.

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “pilate asked” mean?

Quidest veritas? And then some other matter took him in the head, and so up he rose and went his way before he had his answer. He deserved never to find what truth was. — BP.

Is “pilate asked” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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