Assayed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Examined or tested to determine quality or nature ; analyzed to find the composition or amount of a substance
2. Carefully evaluated to assess characteristics or properties ; subjected to chemical analysis to measure specific elements
3. Tested through examination or trial to understand qualities ; studied by scientific methods to detect and quantify components

Etymology: "Assayed" is the past tense and past participle of "assay," a verb that has long meant to test something's quality, most often the purity of a metal. The word and its close relative "essay" are doublets: two English words that came by different routes from the same Old French source, "essai," meaning a trial or attempt. "Assay" entered English through Anglo-Norman "assaier," the form of the verb used in Norman-French-speaking England, and it kept the specialised sense of testing ore or precious metal that the French word had acquired. The "essay" side of the family took the same root in a different direction. Where "assay" stayed close to its testing sense, "essay" drifted toward the idea of an attempt or trial piece of writing, which is why a modern essay is literally a try at expressing a thought. Both words grew from a single idea of trying something out, then split as one kept the workshop and the other kept the study.

Synonyms: tested, evaluated, examined

Antonyms: ignored, dismissed