assay

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English assaien,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman assaier,^[3][4][5] a variant of Old French essaier, now essayer.^[6][7][8] The noun is inherited from Middle English assai,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman assai,^[3][4] a variant of essai (“trial”),^[6][9][7] with the first syllable changed under the influence of the prefix a- (“to”), from Latin ad-.^[3][5] The French noun goes back to Late Latin exagium (“a weighing”),^[4][6][10] which in the Romance languages took the wider sense "examination, trial, testing";^[6] it is usually connected with Latin exigō (“to weigh, examine, test; to drive out”), from ex- (“out”) and agō (“to drive”),^[4][10][11] from Proto-Indo-European *ag- (“to drive, draw out or forth, move”).^[4] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1200 and the verb from the early 12th century, already with the senses of testing money, weights, metals and food.^[12] Cognates include Italian assaggiare, Spanish ensayar and Portuguese ensaiar.^[6] The same French word, in its other spelling, gave essay.^[4][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put a person or thing to the test, to try its quality: Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300,^[4] and the OED's first quotation is from Robert Mannyng's Chronicle of 1330, where the noun, a trial or testing, also first appears.^[6] Barnhart dates the noun before 1338 and the verb probably before 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English assay covered testing of every kind: of a weapon, a medicine or a horse, of weights and measures, of a person's virtue or courage.^[2][6] Specialised uses followed: the trial of metals, from about 1386 in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale,^[6][3][4] the tasting of food or drink before it was served to a lord (1377 to 1859),^[6][5] and in hunting the examination of a killed deer's fat, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.^[6] The general senses "trial, attempt, experience" passed to the other spelling, essay,^[4][13] and Johnson (1755) already treated the two as separate words.^[15] Assay kept the testing of metals, and in the 20th century spread to biology and medicine: from 1922 a biological assay is a test of a substance's strength on a living organism.^[6] The older sense "to try, attempt" survives as a literary use of the verb.^[16][5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – verb, to try, test the quality of.^[4][3]
• 1330 – noun, a trial or testing of a person or thing; verb, to put to the proof.^[6]
• 1377 – to taste food or drink before serving it to a lord (obsolete by 1859).^[6]
• c. 1386 – the trial of metals, determining the amount of metal in an ore or alloy.^[6][3]
• c. 1430 – noun, affliction, a trial endured (obsolete by 1671).^[6]
• c. 1440 – verb, to test an ore or alloy chemically.^[6]
• 1837 – the metal or substance to be assayed.^[6]
• 1922 – a test of a substance's strength on an organism, a bioassay.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An analysis of an ore, alloy or drug to find out what it contains, especially the amount of metal in an ore or the purity of a precious metal.^[16][5][6]
2. A test of the strength or effect of a substance, often on a living organism; a bioassay.^[6][5]
3. A substance that is to be analysed in this way.^[16][6]
4. A careful examination or appraisal of something.^[5]
5. (archaic) A trial or test of a person or thing.^[5][6]
6. (obsolete, 1430–1671) Trial in the sense of hardship or affliction.^[6][5]

Verb

1. To analyse a metal, ore or other substance, to find out its composition or purity.^[16][5][6]
2. To examine or assess something: The historian assayed the evidence for both accounts.^[16][5]
3. To yield a certain amount of metal on analysis.^[6][5]
4. (literary) To try or attempt something: He assayed a reply, but the words failed him.^[16][5]
5. (obsolete, 1377–1859) To taste food or drink before it was served to a person of rank.^[6][5]

Word family

• assayable
• assayer
• bioassay
• immunoassay
• radioimmunoassay
• unassayed
• assay ton
• assay office

Related words

• essay
• exact
• examine
• agent
• act

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins