bequest
verbEtymology From Middle English biquesten, from the noun (see above).
1
To give as a bequest; bequeath.
bequest
noun/bɪˈkwɛst/
Etymology 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”). Not related to quest, which is from Latin. More at quoth, bequeath.
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.
- 2006 SHERRY CLODMAN & EDWARD H. PEARCE: Well Advised. p.25 Civil Sector Press →ISBN A specific bequest is the gift of a specific sum of money, or the gift of a specific property or a particular asset. Perhaps the most common type of bequest, and undoubtedly the most certain, it is the first to be paid after the settlement of estate debts.
3
That which is left by will; a legacy.
4
That which has been handed down or transmitted.
- Yet some odor of religion is still lingering here, the bequest of pious souls, who had grace to enjoy a foretaste of immortal life.1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The New Adam and Eve”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:
5
A person's inheritance; an amount of property given by will.
- Synonyms
- bequeathal, legacy, gift, donation