Another's words repeated exactly, marked as theirs. A quote that is tidied is a small lie about who spoke.
Medieval Latin quotare (to mark a book with chapter numbers, to number), from Latin quot (how many); to quote was first to mark a passage's place in a text, and only later to repeat that marked passage exactly.
Another's words repeated exactly, marked as theirs. The root's numbering is the ancestor of the marking still done today: a quote points back to a specific place, and tidying it erases that pointer as much as it erases the words.