different between essay vs seek

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): /???se?/
• Rhymes: -?se?

Noun

essay (plural essays)

1. (authorship) A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
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

• photo essay

Related terms

• assay
• essayist
• essayistic

Translations

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): /??se?/, /???se?/

Verb

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

1. (dated, transitive) To try.
2. (intransitive) To move forth, as into battle.

Translations

Anagrams

• Sayes, Seays, Sesay, eyass

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): /??se?/, /??.se?/
• Hyphenation: es?say
• Rhymes: -e?

Noun

essay n (plural essays, diminutive essaytje n)

1. essay

Hypernyms

• betoog

Derived terms

• essayist

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: esai

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.

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.

English

Etymology

From Middle English seken (also sechen, whence dialectal English seech), from Old English s??an, with influence from Old Norse sœkja, whence the hard /k/ sound (compare beseech); both from Proto-Germanic *s?kijan? (“to seek”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh?g- (“to seek out”). Cognate with West Frisian sykje, Dutch zoeken, Low German söken, German suchen, Danish søge, Icelandic sækja, Norwegian Bokmål søke, Norwegian Nynorsk søkja, Swedish söka.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si?k/, s?k
• Homophone: Sikh
• Rhymes: -i?k

Verb

seek (third-person singular simple present seeks, present participle seeking, simple past and past participle sought)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To try to find; to look for; to search for.
2. (transitive) To ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Luke xi. 16

     Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.

   • 1960, Lobsang Rampa, The Rampa Story:

     “My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.

3. (transitive) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
   • 1880, George Q. Cannon, How the Gospel is Preached By the Elders, etc.:

     But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.

   • 1886, Constantine Popoff, translation of Leo Tolstoy's What I Believe:

     I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To go, move, travel (in a given direction).

   • Ryght so he sought […] towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes

5. (transitive) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.

   • Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

   • 1726 (tr.), Alexander Pope, Homer's Odyssey, Book II, line 33

     Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains

6. (intransitive) To attempt, endeavour, try

   Our company does not seek to limit its employees from using the internet or engaging in social networking.

7. (intransitive, computing) To navigate through a stream.

   Synonym: scrub

   • 2009, Jit Ghosh, Rob Cameron, Silverlight 2 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (page 541)

     Most of the changes made to this control are to accommodate the various constraints that playback of streaming media may impose in broadcast streams, such as the inability to seek through the media.

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:seek.

Usage notes

• The word is sometimes used to mean "try" or "want". This usage is criticized by Fowler in the entry "Formal Words".

Synonyms

• look for
• search

Derived terms

Related terms

• hide and seek
• seeker

Translations

Noun

seek (plural seeks)

1. (computing) The operation of navigating through a stream.
   • 2012, Aidong Zhang, Avi Silberschatz, Sharad Mehrotra, Continuous Media Databases (page 120)

     The number of seeks to retrieve a shot […] depends on the location of those frames on physical blocks.

Anagrams

• eeks, ekes, kees, seke, skee

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German sêkhûs (“hospital”) (equivalent to sêk +? hûs). From Proto-West Germanic *seuk, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *seukaz (“sick”). Compare German Siechenhaus (“infirmary”), English sickhouse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?se?k/
• Rhymes: -e?k
• Hyphenation: seek

Noun

seek (genitive seegi, partitive seeki)

1. almshouse
   1. A residence and shelter for sick people in the Middle Ages.
   2. (colloquial) A nursing home, retirement home; poorhouse

Declension

References

• seek” in Sõnaveeb