test

Pronunciation

• IPA: /test/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English test, borrowed from Old French test (“pot”) (modern têt (“cupel”)),^[2][3][4] from Latin testum (“earthen pot”) (also testū),^[2][3][5] which is related to testa (“piece of burnt clay, earthen pot, shell”).^[2][3][4] Watkins and Barnhart relate it to texere (“to weave”) and Proto-Indo-European *teks- (“to weave, fabricate”),^[3][2][6] but de Vaan, quoted by Etymonline, finds the derivation unlikely and thinks testa was probably a loanword, as words for vessels often are.^[3] It is related to text and testudo.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small vessel used in assaying or refining precious metals, a cupel: about 1386,^[8] or about 1395 in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Hoad notes that the word was rare before the 16th century.^[9] The sense “trial or examination to find out the quality or truth of something” is from the 1590s, a figure made by Nashe from the metallurgical sense,^[3][8] comparing the testing of metal by melting it in a pot.^[3][10] By Johnson's time (1755) test could mean any means of trial.^[3] A test of religious belief, such as the oath required for office, is from 1665.^[8] In chemistry, the examination of a substance under known conditions is from 1800,^[8] and in mechanics the testing of materials for durability by 1877.^[3][8] A test of knowledge or intelligence is from 1905^[3] or 1910.^[8] A test match in cricket is from 1908.^[8] The verb meant “to assay gold or silver” from about 1600,^[3][4] “to examine the correctness of” by 1748,^[3][11] “to undergo a test” from 1934 and “to give a test” from 1939.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – a cupel for assaying (Chaucer).^[8]
• 1590s – a trial (Nashe).^[3]
• c. 1600 – verb, to assay metal.^[3]
• 1665 – a religious test.^[8]
• 1748 – verb, to put to the proof.^[3]
• 1800 – a chemical test.^[8]
• 1905 – an academic test.^[3]
• 1908 – a test match.^[8]
• 1939 – verb, to give a test.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A procedure for critically evaluating something; a trial.
2. A set of questions or tasks to measure knowledge or ability; an examination.
3. A basis for judgement; a criterion.
4. (chemistry) A reaction used to identify a substance.
5. (cricket) A test match.
6. A cupel for assaying metals.

Verb

1. To subject to a test; to try out.
2. To determine the presence or properties of a substance.
3. To undergo a test, or give one.
4. To show a given result when tested: tested positive.

Word family

• testability
• testable
• testingly
• tester
• field-test
• high-test
• means-test
• road-test

Related words

• testa
• text
• testudo

Usage notes

In zoology, a test is the hard shell of certain invertebrates such as sea urchins, directly from Latin testa, from about 1842.^[12][11][8] An obsolete Scots test, “a witness; a will”, is from Latin testis, “witness”.^[4][13]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)