Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Chest in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels chest as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Chest

[OE. chest, chist, AS. cest, cist, cyst, L. cista, fr. Gr. ki`sth. Cf. Cist, Cistern.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordchest
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[OE. chest, chist, AS. cest, cist, cyst, L. cista, fr. Gr. ki`sth. Cf. Cist, Cistern.]
Selected historical definitionA large box of wood, or other material, having, like a trunk, a lid, but no covering of skin, leather, or cloth.
Signed record IDwebster1913-chest-noun-b1c1b5f718ed
Source locatorCIDE.C, paragraph 6369; Gutenberg eBook 661
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 661Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "chest" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OE. chest, chist, AS. cest, cist, cyst, L. cista, fr. Gr. ki`sth. Cf. Cist, Cistern.]" The selected historical definition says: "A large box of wood, or other material, having, like a trunk, a lid, but no covering of skin, leather, or cloth."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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