assay

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 28 August 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 28, 2023 is:

assay • \a-SAY\ • verb

Assay is a technical word meaning "to test something (such as a metal or drug) to find out what it contains or to assess its value."

// Experts will assay the gold to determine its purity.

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Examples:

"An obscure testing lab was hired to assay the metal because using the leading firm in the field would supposedly alert the Canadian nickel cartel." — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 24 Mar. 2022

Did you know?

Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs assay and essay. Some confusion shouldn’t be surprising; not only do the two somewhat uncommon words look and sound alike, they also come from the same root, the Middle French word essai, meaning "test" or "effort." (Essai, in turn, comes from the Late Latin word exagium, meaning "act of weighing.") At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" or "attempt," but they are now typically differentiated, with essay meaning "to try or attempt" (as in "a comedic actor essaying her first dramatic role") and assay meaning "to test or evaluate" (as in "blood assayed to detect the presence of the antibody"). Of course, essay is more common as a noun referring to a short analytic or personal literary composition, but that’s another essay.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for August 28th.
0:11.3	Today's word is essay spelled A-S-S-A-Y, essay is a verb.
0:17.7	It's a technical word meaning to test something such as a metal or drug to find out what
0:22.8	it contains or to assess its value.
0:25.9	Here's the word used in a sentence from the New Republic by Walter Shapiro.
0:30.8	An obscure testing lab was hired to essay the metal because using the leading firm in
0:36.0	the field would supposedly alert the Canadian nickel cartel.
0:41.2	Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs essay with an A and essay with an E. Some
0:47.9	confusion shouldn't be surprising, not only do the two somewhat uncommon words look
0:52.6	and sound alike, they also come from the same root, the middle French word essay, E-S-S-S-A-I,
1:00.2	meaning test or effort.
1:02.0	Essay in turn comes from the late Latin word exactum, meaning the act of weighing.
1:08.2	At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning try or attempt, but they
1:14.0	are now typically differentiated with essay meaning to try or attempt as in a comedic actor
1:21.1	essaying her first dramatic role and essay meaning to test or evaluate, as in blood
1:27.3	assayed to detect the presence of the antibody.
1:31.1	Of course essay is more common as a noun referring to a short analytic or personal literary
1:36.4	composition, but that's another essay with your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:46.2	Visit MarianWebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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