essay
UK[ˈɛseɪ]US[ˈɛˌseɪ]
n
A short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of their school or university work.
n
A formal attempt or effort; an initial tentative effort.
v
To try to do something.
Etymology
The word 'essay' entered English in the late 15th century from the Middle French 'essai', meaning a 'trial' or 'attempt'. The French term derived from the Late Latin 'exagium', which signified a 'weighing' or 'balance', itself originating from the Latin verb 'exigere', meaning 'to weigh, test, or drive out'. This Latin root is a combination of 'ex-' ('out') and 'agere' ('to drive, do'). The semantic journey is vivid: from the literal act of driving out or weighing, it evolved to mean a test or trial, and finally, in the literary sense championed by Michel de Montaigne (whose 1580 work "Essais" gave the genre its name), it came to mean a tentative effort to explore a subject—a weighing of ideas. Thus, the modern academic 'essay' retains the core notion of being an attempt or a testing of one's thoughts on a topic.
Analysis
The word is a simplex loanword from French. It cannot be meaningfully segmented into productive morphemes in modern English spelling without resorting to historical forms not present in the word.
Examples
She received top marks for her history essay on the causes of the First World War.
His first essay into politics was unsuccessful, but he learned valuable lessons.
The scientist will essay a new method of data analysis for the complex experiment.