Meaning

noun a search for an alternative that meets cognitive criteria

noun the act of searching for something

verb make a search (for)

originFrom 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 quaerō (“to ask, seek”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0