gest

See also: Gest

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʒɛst/

Homophone: jest

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French geste. Doublet of jest.

Noun

gest (countable and uncountable, plural gests)

1. (obsolete) A gesture or action.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto IX:

     They did obeysaunce, as beseemed right, / And then againe returned to their restes: / The Porter eke to her did lout with humble gestes.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     more Kings and Princes have written his gestes and actions, than any other historians, of what quality soever, have registred the gests, or collected the actions of any other King or Prince that ever was […].

2. (archaic) A story or adventure; a verse or prose romance.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “[(please specify the book title).]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, OCLC 55195564:

     The tales of Robin Hood, or the gests written by Ariost the Italian in his booke intituled Orlando furioso.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

3. (archaic) An action represented in sports, plays, or on the stage; show; ceremony.
   • a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon

     And surely no Ceremonies of dedication , no not of Solomons Temple it self , are comparable to those sacred gests , whereby this place was sanctified

4. (archaic) bearing; deportment
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto II, stanza 24:

     through his heroic grace and honorable gest

Translations

gesture

• French: geste (fr) m

• Serbo-Croatian: gesta (sh) f

verse romance

• French: geste (fr) f

Etymology 2

Compare gist a resting place.

Noun

gest (plural gests)

1. (obsolete) A stage in travelling; a stop for rest or lodging in a journey; a rest.
2. (obsolete) A roll reciting the several stages arranged for a royal progress.
   • 1829, John Hanmer, "Proteus", Fra Cipolla: And Other Poems

     The pictured lives of martyr, or of saint,
     Or gests of valorous knight

Anagrams

• Gets, gets, steg, tegs

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin gestus, attested from the 14th century.

Noun

gest m (plural gests or gestos)

1. gesture

Related terms

• gesticular

Further reading

• “gest” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “gest” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “gest” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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Icelandic

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

gest

1. indefinite accusative singular of gestur

Etymology 2

Verb

gest

1. singular present indicative of getast
2. second-person imperative of getast

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Middle Dutch

Alternative forms

• gist

Etymology

From Old Dutch *gest, *gist, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu.

Noun

gest m or f

1. yeast

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• gist

Descendants

• Dutch: gist
  • Afrikaans: gis

Further reading

• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “gest (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From a conflation of Old Norse gestr and Old English ġiest; both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Germanic *gʰóstis. Doublet of host.

Alternative forms

• geste, gist, geast, gyst

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/, /ɡɛːst/, /ɡist/
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

gest (plural gestes)

2. A guest, visitor; somebody staying at another's residence.
3. A customer of a hostel or inn; one that pays for accommodation.
4. An unknown person; a foreigner or outsider.
5. A (often threatening) male individual; a ominous person.
6. (figuratively, rare) A male lover of a woman; a man in an unofficial intimate relationship with a woman.

Derived terms

• gesten
• gestenen
• gestyng

Descendants

• English: guest
• Scots: guest

References

• “gest, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-26.

Etymology 2

Noun

gest

1. Alternative form of geste (“tale”)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Etymology 3

Noun

gest

1. Alternative form of geste (“tribe”)

Etymology 4

Verb

gest

1. Alternative form of gesten (“to host a guest”)

Etymology 5

Verb

gest

1. Alternative form of gesten (“to read poetry”)

Etymology 6

Noun

gest

1. Alternative form of yest (“beer foam”)

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin gestus, via French geste

Noun

gest m (definite singular gesten, indefinite plural gester, definite plural gestene)

1. a gesture

References

• “gest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin gestus, via French geste

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/

Noun

gest m (definite singular gesten, indefinite plural gestar, definite plural gestane)

1. a gesture

References

• “gest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Old Frisian

Etymology

Possibly borrowed from Old Saxon gēst or Old High German geist.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡeːst/, [ˈɡɛːst]

Noun

gēst m

1. Alternative form of gāst

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 28

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Old Norse

Noun

gest

1. accusative/dative singular of gestr

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Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• *gast

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gaist.

Noun

gēst m

1. A soul, spirit, breath

Declension

Declension of gēst (masculine a-stem)

	singular	plural
nominative	gēst	gēstos
accusative	gēst	gēstos
genitive	gēstes	gēstō
dative	gēste	gēstum
instrumental	—	—

Descendants

• Middle Low German: gêst, geist
  • German Low German: Geest, Geist
  • Low German: geest
  • Plautdietsch: Jeist
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: gast
  • → Old Danish: gast (or from Frisian)
    • Danish: gast
  • → Swedish: gast

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Polish

Etymology

From Medieval Latin gestura, nominative singular of gesturus (“about to carry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

gest m inan

1. gesture

Declension

Declension of gest

	singular	plural
nominative	gest	gesty
genitive	gestu	gestów
dative	gestowi	gestom
accusative	gest	gesty
instrumental	gestem	gestami
locative	geście	gestach
vocative	geście	gesty

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Romanian

Etymology

From French geste.

Noun

gest n (plural gesturi)

1. gesture

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Swedish

Etymology

From Latin gestus (“having been carried”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɧɛst/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

gest c

1. a gesture; a motion of the hands

   gäster med gester

   guests with gestures (title of a Swedish TV show)

2. a gesture; a symbolic action, a signal

Declension

Declension of gest
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	gest	gesten	gester	gesterna
Genitive	gests	gestens	gesters	gesternas

Related terms

• gestik
• gestikulation
• gestikulera
• gestikulering
• gestisk
• gestuell

Anagrams

• gets, segt, steg, tegs

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/

Verb

gest

1. Soft mutation of cest.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cest	gest	nghest	chest
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.