curiosity

Curiosity comes from Middle English curiosite, a variant of curiouste, borrowed from Anglo-Norman curiouseté, which itself came from Latin cūriōsitās. It can also be read as curious plus the suffix -ity.

The word simply passed from Latin through Anglo-Norman into Middle English, eventually pushing out the native Old English word firwitt, which had named the same impulse to want to know.

It shares its base with curious, since curiosity can be understood as curious plus -ity.