quotation

The story

1. Latin · derived fromquotāre
2. Medieval Latin · borrowed fromquotātiō
3. English todayquotation

The obsolete sense of “quota”, from Medieval Latin quotātiō, from Latin quotāre, is attested from the 15th century. The sense “fragment of verbal expression”, attested from the 17th century, may come from this source, or else from the verb quote + -ation.