From an e-mail I just got:
you know?
"Let the Queen know of our gests," Antony instructs his men after a hard-won
victory on the battlefield in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Great
deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in
fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than
with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century
"gests," but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. "Gest"
traces to Latin "gestus," the past participle of the verb "gerere," which
means "to wage," "to accomplish," or "to act," among other things. That
Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like "gesture," "ingest," "jest,"
"register," and "suggest."

I've always spelled it as in "Beau Geste", story about French Foreign Legion
I so much enjoyed as a teen-ager.

Wouldn't you think that this word gest is etymologically linked to gist ( the gist of the gest!). But no, my Webster's tells me that gist comes from L. jacere, to build, to found....
Hunches don't always work.

It is a positive shame that they don't
Welcome Dundasian, to our humble abode...OK is another word with which hunches don't work...free has a most interesting etymology as well...

WELCOME DUNDASIAN

You certainly found an old post to begin with.

Many of us, before embarking on a new gest, like to practice our (s)wordsmanship by hewing an old post.

Peter

Like I thought of the word quest which is also not related to gest but just like it is associated with heroic deeds by knighs and heroes of old.
Quest and question both coming from quærere "seek, gain, ask.

The search for the Grail, and the Knights of Old.
Wonderful stories.