quest

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kwɛst/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English queste, borrowed from Old French queste (“search, chase, inquiry”) and directly questa (“search, inquiry”),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *quaesta, from Latin quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere (“to seek, ask”), of unknown origin.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An official or judicial inquiry, an inquest: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne;^[2][6] about 1300 in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A search or pursuit, especially of hounds seeking game, is from the early 14th century.^[3][6] In medieval romance a quest is a knight's expedition to achieve some task, such as finding the Holy Grail (about 1384).^[6][7] In quest of is from 1575.^[6] The verb, of hounds, to search for game or to bay at it, is from the mid-14th century, whence the questing beast of Arthurian legend;^[3] of persons, to go in search, it is from the 1620s.^[3] The inquest sense survives in dialect.^[8][9] The collecting of alms was a 16th-century sense.^[4]

Timeline

• 1303 – an inquest.^[2][6]
• early 14th century – a search.^[3]
• mid-14th century – the verb, of hounds.^[3]
• c. 1384 – a knight's quest.^[6]
• 1620s – of persons, to search.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A long search for something.
2. In medieval romance, an expedition by a knight to perform a set task.
3. (archaic) A jury of inquest.

Verb

1. To go in search of something.
2. Of a dog, to search for game.

Word family

• quester
• questingly
• question
• vision quest

Related words

• inquest
• conquest
• request
• query
• inquire

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)