It's Merriam Webster's Word of the day for August 1st. Today's word is perquisite. Perquisite is a noun.It refers to something extra that someone receives in addition to regular pay for doing a job. Perks, as in “job perks” is short for perquisite. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Financial Express of India.

"With Zoom meetings ... there are a few traditional sectors and work areas wherein remote working has been quickly adopted. This includes marketing, advertising, and IT services. However, there have been a few areas where remote working was a possibility and perquisite even before the pandemic struck the world."

Looking to acquire a job loaded with perquisites, or perks? Don't give up the search! Make plenty of inquiries, send out an exquisitely crafted résumé, follow up with queries, and be sure to meet most of the prerequisites of the job description. Your quest may result in your conquering of the job market. After all, the word perquisite comes from the Latin word perquirere, which, in turn, is from the prefix per-, meaning “thoroughly” and the verb quaerere, meaning “to ask” or “to seek.”

It's not surprising that several other words in this paragraph come from quaerere as well—acquire, inquiries, exquisitely, queries, conquering, quest, and, of course, perk, which was formed by shortening and altering perquisite. Quaerere is also an ancestor of prerequisite, so we won't blame you if you mix up perquisite and prerequisite. You can tell the difference by remembering that a prerequisite can be a requirement needed before getting a job (pre- means “before”), while a perquisite is something extra you get after you've been hired.