essay

essay

See also: Essay

English

Etymology 1

Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay, essai (“essay”), meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay, essai, assay, assai, from Latin exagium (“weight; weighing, testing on the balance”), from exigere + -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (1), IPA^(key): /ɛˈseɪ/ (2-4)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛseɪ
• Homophone: ese

Noun

essay (plural essays)

1. (authorship) A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
   • 2013 January 1, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 1, page 64:

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”

2. (obsolete) A test, experiment; an assay.
3. (now rare) An attempt.
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 455:

     This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.

4. (philately, finance) A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote.

Derived terms

• eight-legged essay
• essay mill
• essay question
• photo-essay
• photo essay

 

Related terms

• assay
• essayist
• essayistic

Translations

written composition

Albanian: ese (sq) f Arabic: مَقَالَة‎ f (maqāla), بَحْث‎ (ar) m (baḥṯ) Armenian: շարադրություն (hy) (šaradrutʿyun), էսսե (hy) (ēsse) Assamese: ৰচনা (rosona) Azerbaijani: esse (az), inşa, oçerk, məqalə (az) Bashkir: инша (inşa) (in high school) Belarusian: твор m (tvor), эсэ́ n (esé), на́рыс m (nárys) Bengali: প্রবন্ধ (prôbôndhô) Bulgarian: есе́ (bg) n (esé), съчине́ние (bg) n (sǎčinénie), о́черк (bg) m (óčerk) Burmese: စာစီစာကုံး (my) (cacicakum:), စာတမ်းငယ် (my) (catam:ngai) Catalan: redacció (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 作文 (zok3 man4-2) Mandarin: 雜文／杂文 (zh) (záwén), 論文／论文 (zh) (lùnwén), 作文 (zh) (zuòwén) Czech: esej (cs) m Danish: essay n, stil (da) c Dutch: essay (nl) n, opstel (nl) n, essai n Esperanto: eseo Estonian: essee Finnish: essee (fi), kirjoitelma (fi); aine (fi), ainekirjoitus (fi) (in school) French: essai (fr) m, rédaction (fr) f, dissertation (fr) f Galician: ensaio m Georgian: ესე (ese), თხზულება (txzuleba) German: Aufsatz (de) m, Essay (de) n Greek: δοκίμιο (el) n (dokímio), πραγματεία (el) f (pragmateía), έκθεση (el) f (ékthesi), σύγγραμα n (sýngrama) Ancient Greek: μελετήματα f (meletḗmata) Hebrew: מַסָּה‎ (he) f (masá) Hindi: निबंध (hi) m (nibandh), मज़मून m (mazmūn) Hungarian: esszé (hu) Icelandic: ritgerð (is) f Ido: esayo (io) Indonesian: esai (id) Irish: aiste f Italian: saggio (it) m, ricerca (it) f, studio (it) m Japanese: エッセイ (essei), 随筆 (ja) (ずいひつ, zuihitsu) Kazakh: эссе (esse), шығарма (kk) (şyğarma), очерк (oçerk), мақала (kk) (maqala) Khmer: អត្ថបទ (ʼatthaʼbɑt) Korean: 수필(隨筆) (ko) (supil), 에세이 (esei) Kyrgyz: эссе (esse), дилбаян (dilbayan), очерк (oçerk) Latin: meditatio, meletemata Latvian: eseja f Lithuanian: esė f Macedonian: есеј m (esej) Malagasy: lahateny, kabary (mg), famelabelaran-kevitra Malay: karangan (ms) Malayalam: ഉപന്യാസം (ml) (upanyāsaṃ) Maori: tuhingaroa Norwegian: Bokmål: essay n Pashto: مقاله‎ f (maqāla) Persian: مقاله‎ (fa) (maqâle), جستار‎ (fa) (jostâr) Polish: esej (pl) m, wypracowanie (pl) n, rozprawka f Portuguese: ensaio (pt) m, redação (pt) f Romanian: eseu (ro) n Russian: сочине́ние (ru) n (sočinénije), эссе́ (ru) n (essɛ́), о́черк (ru) m (óčerk) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ѐсе̄ј m Roman: èsēj (sh) m Slovak: esej (sk) m Slovene: esej m Spanish: ensayo (es) m, redacción (es) f Swahili: insha (sw) class n Swedish: uppsats (sv) c, essä (sv) c Tagalog: sanaysay Tajik: мақола (tg) (maqola), навиштор (navištor), иншо (inšo) Tatar: инша (tt) (inşa) Telugu: వ్యాసము (te) (vyāsamu) Thai: ความเรียง (th) (kwaam-riiang) Turkish: deneme (tr), kompozisyon (tr) Ukrainian: есе́ n (esé), есе́й m (eséj), твір (uk) m (tvir), на́рис m (nárys) Urdu: مَقالَہ‎ (maqālā), اِنشائِیَہ‎ (inśāiyā), مَضْمُون‎ (ur) m (mazmūn) Uyghur: ماقالە‎ (ug) (maqale) Uzbek: insho (uz), esse (uz), ocherk (uz), maqola (uz) Vietnamese: tiểu luận (vi) Welsh: traethawd (cy) m, ysgrif (cy) f Yiddish: עסיי‎ m (esey) Yoruba: àròkọ

an attempt — see attempt,‎ try,‎ assay

Etymology 2

From Middle French essayer, essaier, from Old French essaiier, essayer, essaier, assaiier, assayer, assaier, from essay, essai, assay, assai (“attempt; assay; experiment”) as above.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɛˈseɪ/

Verb

essay (third-person singular simple present essays, present participle essaying, simple past and past participle essayed)

1. (dated, transitive) To try.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.

2. (intransitive) To move forth, as into battle.

Translations

to try — see try

Anagrams

• Sayes, Seays, Sesay, eyass

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English essay (“essay”), from Middle French essai (“essay; attempt, assay”), from Old French essai, from Latin exagium (whence the neuter gender).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛˈseː/, /ˈɛ.seː/
• Hyphenation: es‧say
• Rhymes: -eː

Noun

essay n (plural essays, diminutive essaytje n)

1. essay

Hypernyms

• betoog

Derived terms

• essayist

Descendants

• → Indonesian: esai

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English essay, from Middle French essai.

Noun

essay n (definite singular essayet, indefinite plural essay or essayer, definite plural essaya or essayene)

1. an essay, a written composition of moderate length exploring a particular subject

Derived terms

• essaysamling

References

• “essay” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from English essay, from Middle French essai.

Noun

essay n (definite singular essayet, indefinite plural essay, definite plural essaya)

1. an essay, a written composition of moderate length exploring a particular subject

Derived terms

• essaysamling

References

• “essay” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.