tester

tester¹ canopy over a bed

Etymology

The canopy is inherited from Middle English tester, also testre, testour and testure,^[2] probably borrowed from Old French testre (“the upright part of a bed behind the head”)^[3][4][5][6] or directly borrowed from Medieval Latin testerium, also testrum and testura,^{[3][7][8][9][10]} which Du Cange explains as the upper part or covering of a bed.^[3] Merriam-Webster derives it instead from Middle French testiere (“headpiece, head covering”).^[11] All these words come from Latin testa, in late popular Latin and Romance "head",^[3][9] in Late Latin "skull" and in Latin "tile, earthen pot, shell".^[12][10][7] Barnhart and Etymonline take the Medieval Latin word from testera (“headstall of a bridle”).^[10][6] The OED notes that the relations of these forms are not quite clear: testeria, Italian testiera, Spanish testera, Old French testière and the Middle English form in -ere belong together, as do the forms in -re of the three languages, and the other English forms were assimilated to endings in -er, -ar, -or and -our.^[3] Etymonline gives French têtière (“headstall, headboard”) as the modern French cognate.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A canopy over a bed, or the upright part at its head that rises to the canopy: about 1380, in Wyclif.^[3][10] The MED's first quotation, from 1388, is for the high headboard on which a canopy rests.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word could mean the headboard of a bed or the framework that held the canopy as well as the canopy itself,^[6][2] and the phrase tester and celure was common.^[3] By the 15th century it was also used of things that cover or overhang: a shrine, a canopy carried over a dignitary, the sounding board of a pulpit,^[3] or the frame of a canopy over a church sepulchre.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "the cover of a bed" as its second sense, after the coin.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – a canopy over a bed, or the upright part at the head.^[3][10]
• 1388 – the headboard of a bed supporting a canopy.^[2]
• before 1500 – something that covers or overhangs, such as a canopy over a dignitary or the sounding board of a pulpit.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A canopy over a bed, especially a four-poster.^[14][11][7]
2. The frame on which the canopy of a bed rests.^[11]
3. A canopy over an altar or pulpit; a baldachin.^[11][3]

tester² old coin

Etymology

The coin is apparently an alteration of teston, also testoon;^{[3][7][12][15][5]} the OED sees in it a series of corruptions of that word.^[3] Merriam-Webster takes it as borrowed from Middle French testart (“teston”), modified under the influence of the suffix -er, formed from teston with the suffix -art,^[11] and Dictionary.com explains the r in the same way.^[16] The word teston is from Middle French, from Old Italian testone, an augmentative of testa (“head”), from Late Latin testa (“skull”), Latin "shell".^[11][12][15] The coin was named from the sovereign's head on it:^[15][11] the Milanese testone of Galeazzo Maria Sforza (duke 1468–76) and the French teston of Louis XII and Francis I bore portraits, and Henry VIII's teston was the first English coin with a true portrait.^[5][6][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A shilling of Henry VIII: 1546 in Merriam-Webster,^[11] the 1540s in Etymonline.^[6] The OED's first record, from 1560, uses it as a name for Henry VIII's teston, especially once it was debased and lost value.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word later became a colloquial or slang name for a sixpence,^[3][7][6] the sense Johnson (1755) gave first, quoting Shakespeare's Henry IV ("there is a tester for thee").^[13] Green's slang dictionary has it from 1595, in the phrase "nine for a tester".^[17] Skeat links it with the slang tizzy, a sixpence,^[4][15] and Johnson explained the name from teste (“head”), the coin probably being known by its head.^[13]

Timeline

• 1546 – a teston of Henry VIII.^[11] The OED's first record is from 1560.^[3]
• 1595 – slang, a sixpence.^[17][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A teston, an English silver shilling of Henry VIII, especially a debased one.^{[14][11][7][3]}
2. (obsolete) A sixpence.^[7][13][3]

tester³ one who tests

Etymology tree of tester³

inherited borrowed derived

English test

Italian test

English tester

Etymology

The person or device that tests is formed from English test + -er, an agent noun from the verb,^{[3][10][6][11][7][15]} or from the noun, as the OED allows.^[3] The verb was first used about 1600 for assaying gold or silver; the noun was originally a small vessel used in assaying metals, from Old French test (“pot”), from Latin testum (“earthen pot”), a doublet of testa.^[6][3] Separately, Middle English had tester for a crucible or similar vessel for trying metals, about 1460, formed from the noun.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who tests or proves something: 1661, in Robert Boyle's writings,^[3][10][11] the 1660s in Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED's sense covers both a person whose business is to test the quality of things and a device for testing;^[3] Etymonline dates the mechanical sense, an apparatus used in testing, to 1877.^[6] In biology a tester has been a strain of organism used to investigate a genetic trait of another strain since 1925.^[3][7] From 1978, first in the United States, the word was used for a dispenser from which a trial sample of a product, especially a cosmetic or perfume, can be taken,^[3][7] and in American drug slang a tester is a free sample handed out to advertise a dealer's stock (1997).^[17]

Timeline

• 1661 – one who tests or proves.^[3][10][11]
• 1877 – an apparatus used in testing.^[6]
• 1925 – biology, a strain used to test another.^[3]
• 1978 – a dispenser of a trial sample of a product.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who tests something, especially one whose job is checking the quality of products: a software tester.^[11][12]
2. A device for testing: a voltage tester.^[11][12][3]
3. A sample of a product, such as a perfume or cosmetic, that customers may try in a shop.^[3][7]
4. (biology) A strain of organism used to investigate a genetic characteristic of another.^[3][7][11]

Word family

• multitester