essay
pronunciation
How to pronounce essay in British English:
UK [ˈeseɪ , eˈseɪ]
How to pronounce essay in American English:
US [ˈeseɪ , eˈseɪ]
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- Noun:
- an analytic or interpretive literary composition
- a tentative attempt
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- Verb:
- make an effort or attempt
- put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to
Word Origin
- essay
- essay: [15] Essay and assay [14] are fundamentally the same word, and only began to diverge in the 15th century. Both come via Old French assaier from Vulgar Latin *exagiāre ‘weigh out’, a verb derived from late Latin exagium ‘weighing’; this in turn was formed from the Latin verb exigere ‘weigh’ (source of English exact and examine).Accordingly, both originally had underlying connotations of ‘testing by weighing’. But while these have become more concrete in assay ‘analyse precious metals’, essay has, under the influence of French essayer, gone down the more metaphorical route from ‘test’ to ‘try’. The verb now survives only in fairly formal use, but the noun is much more frequent, owing to its application to a ‘short nonfictional literary composition’.It was first used thus in English by Francis Bacon in 1597 as the title of a collection of such pieces, and it is generally assumed that he borrowed the idea from the Essais of Montaigne, published in 1580.=> assay, exact, examine
- essay (n.)
- 1590s, "trial, attempt, endeavor," also "short, discursive literary composition" (first attested in writings of Francis Bacon, probably in imitation of Montaigne), from Middle French essai "trial, attempt, essay" (in Old French from 12c.), from Late Latin exagium "a weighing, a weight," from Latin exigere "drive out; require, exact; examine, try, test," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + agere (see act (n.)) apparently meaning here "to weigh." The suggestion is of unpolished writing. Compare assay, also examine.
- essay (v.)
- "to put to proof, test the mettle of," late 15c., from Middle French essaier, from essai "trial, attempt" (see essay (n.)). This sense has mostly gone with the divergent spelling assay. Meaning "to attempt" is from 1640s. Related: Essayed; essaying.
Example
- 1. Not surprisingly , his essay drew a lot of response .
- 2. A student is late handing in an essay .
- 3. Represents the title of a piece of content whether it 's a book article or essay .
- 4. What was welcome about mueenuddin 's essay was the way it described what the flood means in punjab and sind .
- 5. I wrote down this essay and put it in my mind .