Word a Week

Welcome to Word a Week! Each week, we will be diving into the meanings, roots, and uses of words we use everyday, but may not know much about. Words, like anything, have a rich and interesting history that is always moving, changing, and being redefined. Let's learn about the history of what we use everyday –– language!

Essay (ˈesā)

This week’s word is “essay.” We use this word all the time in school and in our day-to-day lives. Some of the Foremost American essayists have been writers like James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, or Wendell Berry. But this wasn’t always a word to define a short piece of nonfiction writing. No, its first use was in the 1300s, in the form of the Anglo-French “assaier.” “Assaier” meant to try, to strive, to examine, and to endeavor. And another Anglo-French word, “essai,” meaning “a trial” or, “an attempt” was a close cousin of this word “assaier.” A big difference from the way we use this word today –– most notably, the word defined an activity! Not a piece of writing. It was French philosopher Michel de Montaigne who, in 1580, became the first to bring this word into the literary sphere. He started exploring this form after the death of his friend, when he began examining, weighing, and exploring philosophical topics in solitude, later creating what is now known as the essay form. So. When we sit down to write our essays for our English classes, maybe we can look back at this word’s history –– of examining, exploring, weighing and striving. What are we striving to explore? What are we striving to examine? “Endeavor” was also a meaning once used for this word “essay.” How will we endeavor, attempt, and explore the good ideas we have in our minds?