different between rift vs quest

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.

Noun

rift (plural rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

3. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

Derived terms

• rift valley

Translations

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.

   to rift an oak

   • to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, "A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)" 9-11, [1]

     The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]

     he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern Britain) To belch.

Etymology 3

Verb

rift (obsolete)

1. past participle of rive

   The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift

   Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.

Anagrams

• FTIR, frit

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb rive

Noun

rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “rift” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb rive or riva

Noun

rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rift?, *riftij?, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h?reb?- (“to cover; arch over; vault”). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (“legwear; leggings”), Old Norse ript, ripti (“a kind of cloth; linen jerkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rift/

Noun

rift n (nominative plural rift)

1. a veil; curtain; cloak

Related terms

• rifte

Descendants

• Middle English: rift

Romanian

Etymology

From French rift.

Noun

rift n (plural rifturi)

1. rift

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular present rifts, present participle riftin, past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp

English

Etymology

From Middle English quest, queste; partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste (“acquisition, search, hunt”), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta (“tribute, tax, inquiry, search”), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere (“to ask, seek”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kw?st/, enPR: kw?st
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

quest (plural quests)

1. A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.
2. The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.

3. (obsolete) Request; desire; solicitation.

   • Gad not abroad at every quest and call / Of an untrained hope or passion.

4. (obsolete) A group of people making search or inquiry.
5. (obsolete) Inquest; jury of inquest.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 46"

     To 'cide this title is impanneled
     A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
     And by their verdict is determined
     The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part […]

Derived terms

• sidequest

Translations

Verb

quest (third-person singular simple present quests, present participle questing, simple past and past participle quested)

1. To seek or pursue a goal; to undertake a mission or job.
2. To search for; to examine.
   • 1634, Thomas Herbert, Description of the Persian Monarchy now beinge the Orientall Indyes, Iles and other ports of the Greater Asia and Africk

     Next day we quested in search of our caravan, and after some pains recovered it.

3. (entomology, of a tick) To locate and attach to a host animal.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• queste, qwest, qwhest

Etymology

Partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste, and partly from their source, Latin quaesta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kw?st(?)/

Noun

quest (plural questes)

1. (Late Middle English) A legal inquest or investigation; a session of court.
2. (Late Middle English) A group or body of jurors
3. (rare) A body of judges or other individuals commissioned to make a decision or verdict
4. (rare) The decision or verdict reached by such a body of judges.
5. (rare) A quest, mission, or search.
   1. (rare) The finding of prey by hunting dogs during a hunt.
   2. (rare, Late Middle English) The howling upon finding prey by hunting dogs during a hunt.
6. (rare, Late Middle English) A petition or asking.

Related terms

• conquest
• enquest
• questen
• questioun
• questor
• request

Descendants

• English: quest
• Scots: quest

References

• “quest(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-2.

Romagnol

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccu istu, from Latin eccum istum. Compare Italian questo.

Pronoun

quest (feminine singular questa)

1. this one, this

   Quest l'è un mond zneno, e nost mond.

   This is a small world, our world.

   Questa l'è una cittadina bela.

   This is a beautiful city.

Romansch

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccu istu, from Latin eccum istum. Compare Italian questo.

Pronoun

quest

1. this