Etymologically
Log in

essay

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 10:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɛs.eɪ/, /ɛˈseɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French essai (“trial, attempt”),[2][3][4] from Late Latin exagium (“a weighing, a weight”),[2][3][5] from exigere (“to drive out; to examine, weigh”), from ex- and agere (“to drive”).[2][3] It is a doublet of assay, and the verb is an alteration of assay after French essayer.[2][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short literary composition: 1597, as the title of Francis Bacon's Essays, apparently taken from Montaigne's Essais (1580);[2][3][6] a trial or attempt, the 1590s in Etymonline.[3]

Semantic evolution

Trench notes that calling a treatise an essay was once a mark of modesty, an essay being a trial or first attempt rather than a finished work.[7] Word Origins says the writing sense first meant a first draft.[6] The verb, to test, is from the late 15th century,[3][8] a sense now mostly kept by the spelling assay, and to attempt from the 1640s.[3] A test of metals (1668) and a taste of food given to a great person (1598) are obsolete senses.[9] In philately, an essay is a proposed design for a stamp.[10]

Timeline

  • late 15th century – the verb, to test.[3]
  • 1597 – Bacon's Essays.[2]
  • 1598 – an attempt.[9]
  • 1640s – the verb, to attempt.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A short piece of writing on a particular subject.
  2. (formal) An attempt or effort.

Verb

  1. (formal) To attempt or try.

Word family

  • essayer
  • photo-essay
  • unessayed
  • essay question

Usage notes

The noun is usually stressed on the first syllable, while the verb and the sense attempt may be stressed on the second.[11][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press