gest

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>gest</strong> &#149; \JEST\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> a tale of adventures; <em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/romance">romance</a> in verse</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adventure">adventure</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exploit">exploit</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The best authentic source of Robin Hood stories is the late medieval poem <em>A Gest of Robyn Hode</em>…, a compilation of traditional ballads and stories." — Guy McDonald, <em>England</em>, 2003</p> <p>"I was looking forward to this film [<em>Onward</em>] for the last month. My mom follows 'new' movie trailers and called me as soon as she saw this one. The <em>gest</em> was essentially an adventure about two brothers." — <a href="https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/features/entertainment/47216/movie-review-onward">Andrew McManus, <em>The Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times</em>, 11 Mar. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>"Let the Queen know of our gests," Antony instructs his men after a hard-won victory on the battlefield in William Shakespeare's <em>Antony and Cleopatra</em>. Great deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century <em>gests</em>, but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. <em>Gest</em> traces to Latin <em>gestus</em>, the past participle of the verb <em>gerere</em>, which means "to wage," "to bear," or "to carry," among other things. That Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like <em><a href="https://www.me