Etymologically
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test

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)