essay

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
essay

▶noun /ˈɛseɪ/ 

• 1 a piece of writing on a particular subject.

• 2 formal an attempt or effort.

• 3 a trial design of a postage stamp.

▶verb /ɛˈseɪ/ formal attempt: he essayed a smile.

– derivatives
essayist noun,
essayistic adjective.

– origin C15 (in the sense ‘test the quality of’): alt. of assay, by assoc. with OFr. essayer, based on late L. exagium ‘weighing’; the noun (C16) is from OFr. essai ‘trial’.