Behest

WORD OF THE DAY

behest / noun / bih-HEST

Definiton
1a: an authoritative order
1b: command
2: an urgent prompting

Examples
"Earmarks were banned on Capitol Hill 11 years ago at the behest of House Republicans and then-President Obama in response to scandals surrounding how lawmakers were using them."
— Jennifer Haberkorn, The Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2022

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the detentions were in retaliation for Canada’s role in the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of U.S. authorities.
— Paul Vieira, WSJ, 20 May 2022

Did You Know?
Behest first appeared in Old English and was formed from the prefix be- and the verb hātan ("to command" or "to promise").
While this word was originally used only in the sense of "promise," it acquired the additional sense of "command" among speakers of Middle English. Among contemporary English speakers, behest is no longer used in the sense of "promise" but rather denotes an authoritative or urgent request or command.
Old English hātan also gave English the now-archaic words hest (meaning "command") and hight ("being called or named").