essai (Old French)
Where does "essai" come from?
The Old French word 'essai' descends from the Late Latin 'exagium', which originally referred to a weight or act of weighing. This term traces back to the Latin 'exigo', meaning to measure or demand, which itself was formed by combining 'ex-' (out) and 'agō' (to drive). Ultimately, the word's roots lead back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*h₂eǵ-', meaning to drive, illustrating how the concept of 'driving' something toward a measurement evolved into our modern notion of a trial or attempt.
Full etymology tree
- essai (Old French), 'trial (task of considerable difficulty)'
- inherited exagium (Latin), 'A weighing, weight'
- derived exigō (Latin), 'to drive out; expel'
- compound ex- (Latin), 'out, away'
- inherited *eks (Proto-Italic)
- inherited *h₁eǵʰs (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *eks (Proto-Italic)
- compound agō (Latin), 'to act, to behave'
- inherited *agō (Proto-Italic), 'to drive'
- inherited *h₂éǵeti (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be driving'
- derived *h₂eǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to drive'
- inherited *h₂éǵeti (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be driving'
- inherited *agō (Proto-Italic), 'to drive'
- compound ex- (Latin), 'out, away'
- derived exigō (Latin), 'to drive out; expel'
- inherited exagium (Latin), 'A weighing, weight'
Ancestors
- exagium (Latin)
- exigo (Latin)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris