Jest

How to spell jest

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce jest

What does jest mean?

1. nounA joke or playful remark made to amuse rather than to be taken seriously.
2. verbTo speak or behave playfully, making jokes rather than being serious.

Jest in a sentence

• noun

  His cruel remark was meant as a jest, but nobody laughed.

• verb

  He liked to jest with the new staff to put them at ease.

• noun

  She made the comment in jest, not expecting it to be repeated.

• verb

  They would jest about the long meetings to lighten the mood.

Where does jest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin gesta, meaning 'deeds' or 'things done', the neuter plural of the past participle of gerere, 'to carry on' or 'to perform'. It entered English through Old French as 'geste', where it first described a notable exploit or a heroic narrative of such deeds, much like the famous medieval 'chansons de geste' that recounted knightly adventures. Over the 1400s and 1500s the meaning drifted from a serious tale of action toward an idle story, then a piece of mockery, and finally settled into the modern sense of a joke or playful remark. The same Latin gerere also underlies 'gesture' and 'digest', so the family is bound together by the idea of carrying or performing something. The shift from grand deeds to light banter is a neat reminder that the spelling keeps the older 'j' that French gave it, not the 'g' of its Latin parent.

How the word is built

• jest (from Latin gesta: deeds, things done, via Old French geste)