Monday, February 14, 2011

Vocabulary - Quest

A few days ago when I was driving to work, I noticed a sticker on the back window of the car in front of mine.

QUEST

I have no idea why they had the sticker, or what it meant, but I began thinking about the word "quest".

"Quest" means to "seek", to "ask". Of course, you are familiar with "Dragon Quest"! This comes from the meaning in medieval romances such as King Arthur. Knights were given some adventure or task they should do, for example, go and find something. Um, to be honest, I've never played Dragon Quest, so I don't know what the player is looking for ......

By the way, "quest" is actually quite a rare word in daily English, so I think you won't need to use it.

But how about the word "question" ?
I'm sure that IS a word you use every day. Other common words are:

query
questionnaire

And what is the origin of these words? "Quest" comes from Middle English, which comes from Old French, which comes from Latin!

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