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, [Act I, scene i]:

     Cease your quest of love.

   • 1995, “The Sword of Kahless”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 8, spoken by Kor, →OCLC:

     Everything I have done pales in comparison to what I am about to achieve. I am on a quest... a quest for the most revered icon in Klingon history. An icon that predates the Klingon Empire, an icon more sacred than the Torch of G'boj -- More revered than Sabak's armor, and more coveted than the Emperor's crown!

   • 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017, 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.

   1. (video games) A task that a player may complete in order to gain a reward or advance the story.
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) A request; a desire; a solicitation.
   • [1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC:

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

4. (obsolete) A group of people conducting a 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, [Act I, scene ii]:

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

5. (obsolete) An inquest; a 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:

     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

• FedEx quest
• fetch quest
• question
• sidequest
• vision quest

 

Descendants

• → Macedonian: квест (kvest)
• → Russian: квест (kvest)
• → Ukrainian: квест (kvest)

Translations

journey or effort in pursuit of a goal

• Albanian: kërkim (sq)
• Belarusian: по́шук (póšuk), мі́сія f (mísija)
• Bengali: তলাশ (bn) (tôlaś)
• Bulgarian: ди́рене (bg) n (dírene), ми́сия (bg) f (mísija)
• 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
• Esperanto: misio
• 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: खोज (hi) f (khoj)
• 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), クエスト (ja) (kuesuto)
• Korean: 탐색(探索) (ko) (tamsaek), 탐구(探究) (tamgu)
• Latin: indāgātiō f, investīgātiō f, inquīsītiō f, scrūtātiō f
• Macedonian: по́трага f (pótraga), за́дача f (zádača), ми́сија (mk) f (mísija), квест m (kvest), приклуче́ние n (priklučénie)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: søken

• Persian: پویش (fa) (puyeš)
• 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), ми́ссия (ru) f (míssija)
• Scottish Gaelic: sireadh m
• Spanish: búsqueda (es) f, esfuerzo (es) f, misión (es) f
• Swedish: resa (sv) c, uppdrag (sv) n, mål (sv) n, strävan (sv) c
• Turkish: arama (tr)
• Ukrainian: по́шук (uk) m (póšuk), мі́сія (uk) f (mísija), квест m (kvest)
• Welsh: cwest m, cwestau m pl

search

• Arabic: طَلَب (ar) m (ṭalab), بَحْث (ar) m (baḥṯ)
• Belarusian: по́шук m (póšuk)
• Bulgarian: тъ́рсене (bg) n (tǎ́rsene)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 搜索 (zh) (sōusuǒ)

• French: recherche (fr) f
• German: Suche (de) f
• Hungarian: keresés (hu), kutatás (hu)
• Italian: ricerca (it) f
• Japanese: 検索 (ja) (けんさく, kensaku), 捜索 (ja) (そうさく, sōsaku)
• Korean: 검색(檢索) (ko) (geomsaek), 수색(搜索) (ko) (susaek)
• Macedonian: ба́рање (mk) n (báranje)
• Maori: kimihanga
• Russian: по́иск (ru) m (póisk)
• Spanish: búsqueda (es) f
• 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^[2] (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^[3] (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^[4], volume 63, number 3, Taylor & Francis, →ISSN, 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^[5], volume 94, number 12, ACS Publications, →ISSN, 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

Lombard

Alternative forms

• chest (formal variant)
• cuest (orthographic alternative)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʷes(t)/
  • IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɛs(t)], [ˈkʷes(t)]

Determiner

quest m (feminine singular questa, masculine plural quest or quescc, feminine plural quest or queste or questi)

1. Traditional form of cuest (“this”)

Pronoun

quest m (feminine singular questa, masculine plural quest or quescc, feminine plural quest or queste or questi)

1. Traditional form of cuest (“this”)

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.

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.

Romansch

Etymology

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

Pronoun

quest

1. this