different between assay vs gage

English

Etymology

From Middle English assay (noun) and assayen (verb), from Anglo-Norman assai (noun) and Anglo-Norman assaier (verb), from Old French essai. Doublet of essay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æse?/, /??se?/
• Rhymes: -e?

Noun

assay (plural assays)

1. Trial, attempt.
2. Examination and determination; test.
3. The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
4. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
5. Tested purity or value.
6. The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin.
7. The alloy or metal to be assayed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ure to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

assay (third-person singular simple present assays, present participle assaying, simple past and past participle assayed)

1. (transitive) To attempt (something). [from 14th c.]
   • 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, IV, The Sage to the Young Man, ll.5-8:

   • 2011, ‘All-pro, anti-American’, The Economist, 28 May:

2. (archaic, intransitive) To try, attempt (to do something). [14th-19th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:

3. (transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.). [from 15th c.]
4. (obsolete, transitive) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight. [15th-17th c.]
5. To affect.

6. To try tasting, as food or drink.

Translations

Derived terms

Further reading

• assay on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Asays, Yassa

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman assai, from Late Latin exagium.

Alternative forms

• assai, assaie, asaie, assaye, asay, say, sai

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?s?i?/, /?as?i?/, /s?i?/
• Rhymes: -?i?

Noun

assay (plural assayes)

1. Examining; investigation, looking into, research:
   1. Trialling, assaying; the ensuring of quality (usually of a substance, but also of a document)
   2. The trial or testing of one's personality or personal qualities.
   3. An attack (as a trial of one's mettle or ability on the battlefield)
   4. The trialling of comestibles or nourishments (mostly in ceremony)
2. A try or effort towards something.
3. (rare) Facts in support in assertion; evidence.
4. (rare) One's personality; the nature of something or someone.
5. (rare) A deed, action or doing; an endeavour or business.

Derived terms

• assaier
• assayen
• assaynge

Descendants

• English: assay, say
• Scots: assay, say, sey

References

• “assai, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-17.
• “sai, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-17.

Etymology 2

Verb

assay

1. Alternative form of assayen

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?d??/
• Rhymes: -e?d?
• Homophone: gauge

Etymology 1

From Middle English gage, from later Old French or early Middle French gager (verb), (also guagier in Old French) gage (noun), ultimately from Frankish *waddi, from Proto-Germanic *wadj? (whence English wed). Doublet of wage, from the same origin through the Old Northern French variant wage. See also mortgage.

Verb

gage (third-person singular simple present gages, present participle gaging, simple past and past participle gaged)

1. (obsolete) To give or deposit as a pledge or security; to pawn.
2. (archaic) To wager, to bet.
   • c. 1626, John Ford 'Tis Pity She's a Whore

     This feast, I'll gage my life, / Is but a plot to train you to your ruin.

3. To bind by pledge, or security; to engage.

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. Something, such as a glove or other pledge, thrown down as a challenge to combat (now usually figurative).
   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     “But it is enough that I challenge the trial by combat — there lies my gage.” She took her embroidered glove from her hand, and flung it down before the Grand Master with an air of mingled simplicity and dignity…

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, page 166:

     The gage was down for a duel that would split the Democratic party and ensure the election of a Republican president in 1860.

2. (obsolete) Something valuable deposited as a guarantee or pledge; security, ransom.
   • 1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima.

     [I]t seemed to create a sort of material link between the Princess and himself, and at the end of three months it almost appeared to him, not that the exquisite book was an intended present from his own hand, but that it had been placed in that hand by the most remarkable woman in Europe.... [T]he superior piece of work he had done after seeing her last, in the immediate heat of his emotion, turned into a kind of proof and gage, as if a ghost, in vanishing from sight, had left a palpable relic.

Translations

Etymology 2

See gauge.

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. US alternative spelling of gauge (a measure, instrument for measuring, etc.)

Verb

gage (third-person singular simple present gages, present participle gaging, simple past and past participle gaged)

1. (US) Alternative spelling of gauge (to measure)

Usage notes

The spelling gage is encountered primarily in American English, but even there it is less common than the spelling gauge.

Translations

Etymology 3

Back-formation from greengage.

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. A subspecies of plum, Prunus domestica subsp. italica.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

gage

1. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) A quart pot. [15th–19th c.]
2. (archaic, Britain, slang) A pint pot. [18th–19th c.c.]
3. (archaic, Britain, slang, metonymically) A drink. [from 19th c.]
4. (archaic, Britain, slang) A tobacco pipe. [mid 17th–early 19th c.]
5. (archaic, Britain, slang) A chamberpot. [19th c.]
6. (archaic, Britain, slang) A small quantity of anything. [19th c.]
7. (slang, dated) Marijuana

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French gage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?.??/

• Hyphenation: ga?ge
• Rhymes: -a???

Noun

gage m (plural gages)

1. wage for work performed (in particular for a performance by performing artists)

Related terms

• engageren

Descendants

• ? Malay: gaji
  • Indonesian: gaji

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophones: gagent, gages

Etymology 1

From Middle French gage, from Old French gage, guage, from Frankish *wadd?.

Noun

gage m (plural gages)

1. pledge, guarantee
2. (law, finance) deposit, security, guaranty (guarantee that debt will be paid; property relinquished to ensure this)
3. forfeit (something deposited as part of a game)
4. proof, evidence, assurance
5. (in the plural) wages, salary

Derived terms

• tueur à gages

Related terms

• gager

Descendants

• ? Dutch: gage
• ? German: Gage (see there for further descendants)

Etymology 2

Verb

gage

1. first-person singular present indicative of gager
2. third-person singular present indicative of gager
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of gager
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of gager
5. second-person singular present imperative of gager

Further reading

• “gage” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. Alternative form of cage

Etymology 2

Noun

gage

1. Alternative form of gauge

Etymology 3

From Old French gage, from Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *wadd?. Doublet of wage and wed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?d?(?)/

Noun

gage

1. A security, surety, or bond.
2. A formal declaration of combat.
3. (rare) Money for the release of a hostage .

Descendants

• English: gage

References

• “g??e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-22.

Old French

Alternative forms

• guage, gaige, wage

Etymology

From Medieval Latin wadium (“pledge, legal contract, wage”), from Frankish *wadd?.

Noun

gage m (oblique plural gages, nominative singular gages, nominative plural gage)

1. wage (regular remuneration)
2. (figuratively) payment

Descendants

• Middle French: gage
  • French: gage
• ? Middle English: gage
  • English: gage