Assay
nounA laboratory test that determines the purity, content, or quality of a metal, ore, drug, or other substance.
How to spell assay
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce assay
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does assay mean?
- nounA laboratory test that determines the purity, content, or quality of a metal, ore, drug, or other substance.
- verbTo analyse a substance in order to measure its purity, content, or quality.
Assay in a sentence
-
noun
The mining company sent the ore samples for a gold assay.
-
verb
Technicians assay the rock samples to estimate their metal content.
-
noun
The laboratory assay confirmed the silver content of the coins.
-
verb
The refinery will assay the bullion before setting a price.
Where does assay come from?
Language of origin: French
The word travelled into English in the 1300s from Old French assai (also spelled essai), meaning 'a trial' or 'an attempt'. That French word traces back to the Late Latin exagium, which literally meant 'a weighing' or 'the act of weighing on scales', built on the verb exigere 'to weigh out, to examine'. Because precious metals were judged by carefully weighing and testing them, the sense of 'a weighing' naturally narrowed into 'a careful test of quality or purity', which is the meaning that dominates technical English today. The very same Old French root also gave us the everyday word 'essay', originally meaning 'an attempt' or 'a trial run' of one's thoughts, which is exactly why assay and essay are so easily muddled in writing. Remembering that assay begins with the same 'a' as 'analyse' can help fix the spelling, since an assay is essentially a chemical analysis.
How the word is built
- assay (from Old French assai/essai: a trial or test), ultimately from Latin exagium 'a weighing'
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.