experiment

Etymology

From Middle English experiment, from Old French esperiment (French expérience), from Latin experimentum (“experience, attempt, experiment”), from experior (“to experience, to attempt”), itself from ex + *perior, in turn from Proto-Indo-European *per-.

noun

1. A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried.
   conduct an experiment
   carry out some experiments
   perform a scientific experiment
   South Korean officials announced last month that an experiment to create artificial rain did not provide the desired results. Audio (US) (file) 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)
2. (obsolete) Experience, practical familiarity with something.

verb

1. (intransitive) To conduct an experiment.
   We're going to experiment on rats.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To experience; to feel; to perceive; to detect.
   The Earth, the which may have carried us about perpetually ... without our being ever able to experiment its rest. 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2)
3. (transitive, obsolete) To test or ascertain by experiment; to try out; to make an experiment on.
   Til they had experimented whiche was trewe, and who knewe most. 1481, The Mirrour of the World, William Caxton, 1.5.22