quest English · revision 6773

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1303|origins=la quaero}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kwɛst/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English queste, [[bor|fro|queste|t=search, chase, inquiry]] and directly [[m|la-med|questa|t=search, inquiry]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) from Vulgar Latin *quaesta, from Latin [[m|la|quaesita]], the feminine past participle of [[m|la|quaero|alt=quaerere|t=to seek, ask]], of unknown origin.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ An official or judicial inquiry, an [[inquest]]: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's ''Handlyng Synne'';^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) about 1300 in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A search or pursuit, especially of hounds seeking game, is from the early 14th century.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) In medieval romance a quest is a knight's expedition to achieve some task, such as finding the Holy Grail (about 1384).^(OED 1989)^(Collins 2023) ''In quest of'' is from 1575.^(OED 1989) 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;^(Etymonline) of persons, to go in search, it is from the 1620s.^(Etymonline) The inquest sense survives in dialect.^(SOED 2002)^(Wright 1898) The collecting of alms was a 16th-century sense.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1303 – an inquest.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * early 14th century – a search.^(Etymonline)

+ * mid-14th century – the verb, of hounds.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1384 – a knight's quest.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1620s – of persons, to search.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A long search for something.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # In medieval [[romance]], an expedition by a knight to perform a set task.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(archaic)'' A jury of [[inquest]].^(AHD)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To go in search of something.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Of a dog, to search for game.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[quester]]

+ * [[questingly]]

+ * [[question]]

+ * [[vision quest]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[inquest]]

+ * [[conquest]]

+ * [[request]]

+ * [[query]]

+ * [[inquire]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}