Etymology
According to Etymology Online the verb assay, at least since the 13th century meant "to try, endeavor, strive; test the quality of," from Anglo-Fr. assaier, from assai (n.), from O.Fr. essai "trial". And the noun assay thus means "trial, test of quality, test of character," mid-14c., from Anglo-Fr. assai and Meaning "analysis" is from late 14c. For assay of currency coins this literally meant analysis of the purity of the gold or silver or whatever precious component used to represent the true value of the coin. This might have translated later (possibly after 14th century) into a generalized meaning of analysis e.g. of important/principle component of a target inside a mixture such as active ingredient of a drug inside the inert excipients in a pharmacological formulation which originally used to be measured by its actual action on an organism (e.g. lethal dose or inhibitory dose).
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
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“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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