Etymology: < Old French assai, assay, variant of essai , essay , cognate with Provençal essai , assai , assag , Spanish asayo , Catalan assatg , Italian assaggio (also Catalan ensatg , ensaig , Spanish ensayo , Portuguese ensaio ) < Latin exagium ‘weighing,’ but used in Romanic in wider sense of ‘examination, trial, testing’; < Latin ex-agĕre , exigĕre to weigh, try, prove, measure, adjust, ascertain, examine, inquire into. For the sense of the Latin compare exāmen = exagmen : see examine n.; for the form compare contāgium = contāmen < con-tangĕre , naufragium < frangĕre . French essai = Italian assaggio < Latin exagium may be compared to French ai = Old Italian aggio < Latin habeo . The etymological form < Latin ex- was in es- , but in Romanic this was by confusion with other prefixes made as- and en- . In French the etymological essai has now quite ousted assai , and in English, since the end of the 16th cent., essay n. has similarly taken the place of assay , except in the ‘assay of metals,’ and uses founded upon it. An aphetic say n.¹ and adj. was very common down to 17th cent.

Etymology: < Old French a(s)sayer, a(s)saier, also essayer , cognate with Spanish asayar , Provençal essaiar , assaiar , assatjar , Italian assaggiare (compare also Provençal ensaiar , Portuguese ensaiar , Spanish ensayar , Catalan ensajar ) < late Latin or early Romanic *exagiāre , < exagium : see assay n. In later French the etymological form essayer is alone found; this was introduced into English by Caxton, and, except as applied to the testing of metals, assay is now an archaic form of essay v. An aphetic say n.¹ and adj. was formerly common.