assay

English

Etymology

From Middle English assay (noun) and assayen (verb), from Anglo-Norman assai (noun) and Anglo-Norman assaier (verb), from Old French essai. Doublet of essay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæseɪ/, /əˈseɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

assay (plural assays)

1. Trial, attempt.
   • , [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC:

     I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.

2. Examination and determination; test.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     This cannot be, by no assay of reason.

3. The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
4. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 35:

     Through many hard assayes which did betide.

5. Tested purity or value.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13:

     Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay.

6. The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin.
7. The alloy or metal to be assayed.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

assay (third-person singular simple present assays, present participle assaying, simple past and past participle assayed)

1. (transitive) To attempt (something).
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     To-night let us assay our plot.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed.

   • 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, IV, The Sage to the Young Man, ll.5-8:

     Who seest the stark array
     And hast not stayed to count
     But singly wilt assay
     The many-cannoned mount […].

   • 2011 May 28, “All-pro, anti-American”, in The Economist:

     Speaking before a small crowd beneath antique airplanes suspended in the atrium of the State of Iowa Historical Museum, an effortfully cheerful Mr Romney assayed an early version of a stump speech I imagine will become a staple of his campaign for the Republican nomination, once it "officially" begins some time next week in New Hampshire.

2. (archaic, intransitive) To try, attempt (to do something).
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     When Saul cam to Jerusalem he assayde to cople hymsilfe with the apostles, and they wer all afrayde of hym and beleved not that he was a disciple.

3. (transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.).
4. (obsolete, transitive) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

     I wold not by my wille that ony of vs were matched with hym
     Nay said sir Gawayne not so
     it were shame to vs were he not assayed were he neuer soo good a knyghte

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 351:

     The marquis, in obsession for his wife,
     Longed to expose her constancy to test.
     He could not throw the thought away or rest,
     Having a marvellous passion to assay her;
     Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her,
     He had assayed her faith enough before
     And ever found her good; what was the need
     Of heaping trial on her, more and more?

5. To affect.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “August. Aegloga Octaua.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: , London: Hugh Singleton, , →OCLC; republished as The Shepheardes Calender , London: Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, , 1586, →OCLC:

     when the heart is ill assay'd

6. To try tasting, as food or drink.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• assay on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Asays, Yassa

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman assai, from Late Latin exagium.

Alternative forms

• assai, assaie, asaie, assaye, asay, say, sai

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈsæi̯/, /ˈasæi̯/, /sæi̯/
• Rhymes: -æi̯

Noun

assay (plural assayes)

1. Examining; investigation, looking into, research:
   1. Trialling, assaying; the ensuring of quality (usually of a substance, but also of a document)
   2. The trial or testing of one's personality or personal qualities.
   3. An attack (as a trial of one's mettle or ability on the battlefield)
   4. The trialling of comestibles or nourishments (mostly in ceremony)
2. A try or effort towards something.
3. (rare) Facts in support in assertion; evidence.
4. (rare) One's personality; the nature of something or someone.
5. (rare) A deed, action or doing; an endeavour or business.

Derived terms

• assayen
• assayour
• assaynge

Descendants

• English: assay, say
• Scots: assay, say, sey

References

• “assai, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-17.
• “sai, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-17.

Etymology 2

Verb

assay

1. Alternative form of assayen