gest

American  

[jest] / dʒɛst /

Or geste

noun

1. a story or tale.

2. a deed or exploit.

3. Archaic. a metrical romance or history.

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gest British  

/ dʒɛst /

noun

1. a notable deed or exploit

2. a tale of adventure or romance, esp in verse See also chanson de geste

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Etymology

Origin of gest

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French geste action, exploit < Latin gesta exploits, neuter plural past participle of gerere to carry on, perform

Explanation

A gest is something you would read about in a tale of King Arthur, such as a heroic deed or exploit by one of Arthur's knights. Geste is another spelling of the word. A gest may also be a poem or story about an epic deed or exploit. For example, The Song of Roland is an 11th-century French poem or gest about the heroic deeds of the emperor Charlemagne's knights. In fact, the French word geste is where we got our word gest in the medieval period, since French literature was the main source of such stories and poems. The Song of Roland belongs to a category of poem called chanson de geste in French, "song of heroic deeds."

Example Sentences

If a phrase sparks the gest of song memory endures longer — like the hum of a taut string in the dark.

From New York Times • Jan. 28, 2021

Not daring to sug gest that Germany will ask for the emergency moratorium provided in the Young Plan, Herr Bruning hinted that circumstances may force the Allies to grant it.

From Time Magazine Archive

Preliminary estimates sug gest that the South and East China seas, the Bohai Gulf and the Yellow Sea could contain between 20 billion and 60 billion bbl. of recoverable oil.

From Time Magazine Archive

Zamyatin indicated that Andropov was also unlikely to attend the country's big gest annual televised spectacular, the Nov. 7 military parade in Red Square.

From Time Magazine Archive

“You could see your neighbor very dimly. Those ten seconds were the lon- gest ten seconds that I ever experienced.”

From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin