quest

quest

See also: Quest, QUEST, and quest'

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English quest, queste; partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste (“acquisition, search, hunt”), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta (“tribute, tax, inquiry, search”), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere (“to ask, seek”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɛst/, enPR: kwĕst

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

quest (plural quests)

1. A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     Cease your quest of love.

   • 2013 January 1, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017, retrieved 9 May 2013, page 64:

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.

2. The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.

   to rove in quest of game, of a lost child, of property, etc.

3. (obsolete) Request; desire; solicitation.
   • [1633], George Herbert, [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], OCLC 1048966979; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, OCLC 54151361:

     Gad not abroad at every quest and call / Of an untrained hope or passion.

4. (obsolete) A group of people making search or inquiry.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:

     The senate hath sent about three several quests to search you out.

5. (obsolete) Inquest; jury of inquest.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 46”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:

     To 'cide this title is impanneled
     A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
     And by their verdict is determined
     The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part […]

Derived terms

• sidequest
• question

Translations

journey or effort in pursuit of a goal

Albanian: kërkim (sq) Belarusian: пошук (póšuk) Bengali: তলাশ (bn) (tôlaś) Bulgarian: дирене (bg) n (direne) Chinese: Mandarin: 探索 (zh) (tànsuǒ), 尋求／寻求 (zh) (xúnqiú) Czech: výprava (cs) f Dutch: queeste (nl) f (dated), zoektocht (nl) m, streeftocht m Finnish: etsintä (fi) French: quête (fr) f Galician: busca f, procura (gl) f Georgian: ძებნა (ka) (ʒebna), კვესტი (ḳvesṭi) German: Suche (de) f, Queste f Greek: αναζήτηση (el) f (anazítisi), έρανος (el) m (éranos) Ancient Greek: ἀναζήτησις f (anazḗtēsis), ἔρανος m (éranos) Hindi: फ़िराक़ (firāq) Hungarian: küldetés (hu) Indonesian: pencarian (id) Italian: missione (it) f, impresa (it) f Japanese: 探索 (ja) (たんさく, tansaku), 探求 (ja) (たんきゅう, tankyū) Latin: indāgātiō f, investīgātiō f, inquīsītiō f, scrūtātiō f Macedonian: по́трага f (pótraga), за́дача f (zádača), ми́сија f (mísija), квест m (kvest), приклуче́ние n (priklučénie) Norwegian: Bokmål: søken Plautdietsch: Jeforsch m Polish: poszukiwanie (pl) n, poszukiwania (pl) pl Portuguese: busca (pt) f Russian: по́иск (ru) m (póisk), по́иски (ru) m pl (póiski), квест (ru) m (kvest) Scottish Gaelic: sireadh m Spanish: búsqueda (es) f, esfuerzo (es) f Swedish: resa (sv) c, uppdrag (sv) n, mål (sv) n, strävan (sv) c Turkish: arama (tr) Ukrainian: мі́сія (uk) f (mísija), квест m (kvest) Welsh: cwest m, cwestau m pl

search

Bulgarian: търсене (bg) n (tǎrsene) Hungarian: keresés (hu), kutatás (hu) Italian: ricerca (it) f Macedonian: ба́рање n (báranje) Maori: kimihanga Ukrainian: шука́ння n (šukánnja), по́шук (uk) m (póšuk)

Verb

quest (third-person singular simple present quests, present participle questing, simple past and past participle quested)

1. (intransitive) To seek or pursue a goal; to undertake a mission or job.
2. (transitive) To search for something; to seek.
   • 1634, Thomas Herbert, Description of the Persian Monarchy now beinge the Orientall Indyes, Iles and other ports of the Greater Asia and Africk

     Next day we quested in search of our caravan, and after some pains recovered it.

3. (entomology, of a tick) To locate and attach to a host animal.

Etymology 2

Blend of quiz +‎ test, to avoid using the word test.

Noun

quest (plural quests)

1. (education) A short test.
   • 1998 March 20, bill kao, “3rd per”, in alt.music.ash, Usenet‎:

     I had a calculus quest (not a quiz or a test, but somewhere in between...) it was on limits, and l'hopital's rule...

   • 2004 September 24, Kathy, “Weekly Diary Third Semester #4”, in alt.coffee.clutch, Usenet‎:

     However took a quest, quiz/test combination that this math progrm^[sic] uses, and got ten out of ten on it!

   • 2015, Kathleen Gibson-Dee, “Learning Through Questing, Not Testing”, in College Teaching‎, volume 63, number 3, Taylor & Francis, ISSN 8756-7555, page 133:

     Quests, bigger than quizzes and smaller than tests, consist of around 10 questions worth 2 points each, designed to take about 30–40 minutes.

   • 2017, Joshua Ring, “ConfChem conference on select 2016 BCCE presentations”, in Journal of Chemical Education‎, volume 94, number 12, ACS Publications, ISSN 0021-9584, pages 2005–2006:

     Most outcomes were assessed with 10 min, single-page, five-question quizzes/tests (“quests”) given at the beginning of class, followed immediately with a brief discussion of the correct answers; mastery could be demonstrated by the student with four of five complete, correct answers (with no partial credit). […] Students were given a finite number of “quest” retakes. Three class periods during the semester were used as quest makeup periods, during which students would be able to take new versions of EO and GO quests.

Anagrams

• usteq

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• queste, qwest, qwhest

Etymology

Partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste, and partly from their source, Latin quaesta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛst(ə)/

Noun

quest (plural questes)

1. (Late Middle English) A legal inquest or investigation; a session of court.
2. (Late Middle English) A group or body of jurors
3. (rare) A body of judges or other individuals commissioned to make a decision or verdict
4. (rare) The decision or verdict reached by such a body of judges.
5. (rare) A quest, mission, or search.
   1. (rare) The finding of prey by hunting dogs during a hunt.
   2. (rare, Late Middle English) The howling upon finding prey by hunting dogs during a hunt.
6. (rare, Late Middle English) A petition or asking.

Related terms

• conquest
• enquest
• questen
• questioun
• questor
• request

Descendants

• English: quest
• Scots: quest

References

• “quest(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-2.

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Romagnol

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccu istu, from Latin eccum istum. Compare Italian questo.

Pronoun

quest (feminine singular questa)

1. this one, this

   Quest l'è un mond zneno, e nost mond.

   This is a small world, our world.

   Questa l'è una cittadina bela.

   This is a beautiful city.

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Romansch

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccum iste, from Latin eccum + iste. Compare Italian questo.

Pronoun

quest

1. this