bequest

From Middle English biqueste, bequeste (“will, testament, bequest”), from be +‎ -quiste, queste (“saying, utterance, testament, will, legacy”), from Old English *cwist, *cwiss (“saying”) (compare Old English andcwiss, ġecwis, uncwisse, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *kwissiz (“saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet- (“to say”). Related to Old English andcwiss (“answer, reply”), Old English uncwisse (“dumb, mute”), Middle English bequethen (“to bequeath”). More at quoth, bequeath.

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈkwɛst/

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• Rhymes: -ɛst

bequest (plural bequests)

1. The act of bequeathing or leaving by will.
2. The transfer of property upon the owner's death according to the will of the deceased.
3. That which is left by will; a legacy.
4. That which has been handed down or transmitted.
   • 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The New Adam and Eve”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:

     Yet some odor of religion is still lingering here, the bequest of pious souls, who had grace to enjoy a foretaste of immortal life.

5. A person's inheritance; an amount of property given by will.

• bequeathal
• legacy
• gift
• donation

From Middle English biquesten, from the noun (see above).

bequest (third-person singular simple present bequests, present participle bequesting, simple past and past participle bequested)

1. (transitive) To give as a bequest; bequeath.