Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

gest (noun) – 1. A notable adventure or exploit.
2. (a) A verse romance or tale.
(b) A prose romance.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : “Let the Queen know of our gests,” Antony instructs his men after a hard-won victory on the battlefield in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Great deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century gests, but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. Gest traces to Latin gestus, the past participle of the verb gerere, which means “to wage,” “to bear,” or “to carry,” among other things. That Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like gesture, ingest, jest, register, and suggest.

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends.

Latest