A question put to a system in a form it can answer. A query's shape decides what can come back.
Latin quaerere (to seek, to ask), via the imperative quaere (ask!) used as a heading in old legal and scholarly texts; a query is a question shaped for a system that can only answer the shape it is given.
A question put to a system in a form it can answer. The root's plain seeking has not changed — only the asking has been fitted to a listener that requires precision.