bequest

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /bɪˈkwɛst/ UK /bɪˈkwɛst/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
something left to someone in a will; a legacy

The museum received a generous bequest of paintings.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · something left to someone... legacy inheritance endowment gift devise heritage

Word family

Derived forms bequeath

Related forms bequeath

Etymology

From Middle English biquest, from be- + Old English -cwiss ('saying, speech'), related to cwethan ('to say'); influenced by bequeath.

be- Old English cwethan Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# bequest

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /bɪˈkwɛst/
**IPA (UK):** /bɪˈkwɛst/

## Meanings
1. something left to someone in a will; a legacy

## Examples
- The museum received a generous bequest of paintings.

## Synonyms
- legacy
- inheritance
- endowment
- gift
- devise
- heritage

## Derived Forms
- bequeath

## Related Forms
- bequeath

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: be-
- Root: cwethan

## Etymology
From Middle English biquest, from be- + Old English -cwiss ('saying, speech'), related to cwethan ('to say'); influenced by bequeath.

## AI Etymology
Bequest comes from Middle English biquest, from be- + Old English -cwiss ('saying, speech'), related to cwethan ('to say'); influenced by bequeath. The historical trail runs through be- in Old English and cwethan in Old English. Morphologically, bequest is transparent: it draws on Middle English biquest, from be- + Old English -cwiss ('saying, speech'), related to cwethan ('to say'). Used as a noun, bequest now means "something left to someone in a will; a legacy", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as bequeath and related forms such as bequeath. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.

## Topics
- People & Society

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