Plural of 'hest,' which means a command, bidding, or behest; what someone orders or asks you to do.
From Old English 'hǽs' meaning 'command' or 'behest,' related to Gothic 'hais' and Proto-Germanic '*haitaz.' The word originally meant 'to call' or 'to command' and was common in Middle English texts before becoming archaic.
The word 'hest' barely survives in modern English except in the frozen phrase 'at his/her hest,' which people use without realizing they're speaking a 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon word that once meant 'command' in everyday speech.
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