jest

A jest is a joke, a witty remark, or some kind of action intended to be funny.

When used as a noun, jest can also mean a taunt or jeer, as in Don’t allow his jests to upset you.  

Jest can also be used as a verb meaning to joke around or do something intended to be funny, as in I know you like to jest, but try to be serious this one time. 

The word is most commonly used in the phrase in jest, meaning as a joke, as in I said that in jest—please don’t take it seriously. 

Claiming to have said something in jest is often seen as an excuse intended to avoid responsibility for having offended someone with one’s comments. In fact, there is even an expression that relates to this: “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” This means that when people say they are “only joking” about something, they are probably saying what they really mean.

Example: My comments were offered in jest, but I can understand how they could have offended some people.

The first records of the word jest come from the 1200s. It comes from Middle English and is a variant spelling of the word gest, which means “an exploit” comes from the Latin verb gerere, meaning “to perform.”

The most famous use of jest in all of literature is perhaps in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in the scene in which Hamlet is holding the skull of the man who was once the king’s jester, Yorick. Hamlet says, “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.” By describing Yorick as a man of “infinite jest,” Hamlet means Yorick never ran out of jokes or ways to make people laugh. (The title of David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest is a reference to this line.)

What are some other forms related to jest?

• jestful (adjective)
• jestingly (adverb)
• outjest (verb)
• unjesting (adjective)
• unjestingly (adverb)

What are some synonyms for jest?

• joke
• witticism
• banter
• quip
• joke around
• kid

What are some words that share a root or word element with jest? 

• in jest
• jester

What are some words that often get used in discussing jest?

• laugh
• merry
• clever
• humor
• prank
• infinite

Today, jest is perhaps most commonly used in the phrase in jest.

"It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his bootstraps.

And many Negroes, by the thousands and millions, have been left bootless … as the result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma…” https://t.co/ycN2yl4qhP #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/xnEe93S9MN

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 20, 2020

The way we speak to our spouses matters. It’s not only what we say, but how we say it. Many deep wounds are caused by angry words, spoken in the heat of an argument, or careless words spoken in jest.

— shanan thomas (@shananthomas) September 23, 2020

Bucs' Dirk Koetter: Stafford comments 'said in jest' https://t.co/Atvlza7F9I

— Detroit Free Press (@freep) December 8, 2017

Which of the following words is NOT a synonym of jest?

A. joke
B. kid
C. compliment
D. quip