emprise

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Bring to mind forgotten word acquaintances with
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?thes.htm&2
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The Word of the Day for January 16 is:

emprise   \em-PRYZE\   noun
     : an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise

Example sentence:
     As a boy, Will spent hours in the library reading 
adventure stories featuring brave heroes who embarked on 
dangerous and exciting emprises.

Did you know?
     Someone who engages in emprises undertakes much, so it's 
no surprise that "emprise" descends from the Anglo-French 
word "emprendre," meaning "to undertake." It's also no surprise 
that "emprise" became established in English during the 13th 
century, a time when brave knights engaged in many a chivalrous 
undertaking. Fourteenth-century author Geoffrey Chaucer 
used "emprise" to describe one such knight in "The Franklin's 
Tale" (one of the stories in _The Canterbury Tales_): "Ther was 
a knyght that loved and dide his payne / To serve a lady in his 
beste wise; / And many labour, many a greet emprise, / He for 
his lady wroghte er she were wonne."