“Bequest”
- A gift by last will or testament of personal property.
Merriam-WebsterMain
Entry: be·quest
Pronunciation: bi-'kwest
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, irregular from bequethen
Date: 14th century
1: the act of bequeathing
2: something bequeathed : LEGACY
\Be*queath"\ (b[-e]*kw[=e][th]"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bequeathed; p. pr. & vb. n. Bequeathing.] [OE. biquethen, AS. becwe[eth]an to say, affirm, bequeath; pref. be- + cwe[eth]an to say, speak.
See Quoth. 1. To give or leave by will; to give by testament; -- said especially of personal property.
Origin
[Middle English biquethen, from Old English becwethan : be-, be- + cwethan, to say; see gwet- in Indo-European Roots.] becwethan was derived out of cwethan, 'say' whose past tense created quoth. "The original sense 'say, utter' disappeared in the 13th century, leaving the legal sense of 'transferring by will' (first recorded in 1066) (p. 60).Later, the noun of OE cwethan became -cwiss. In the 14th century, it had the addition of the letter t, becoming the word currently used as bequest.