test

Etymology 1

From Middle English test, teste, from Old French test, teste (“an earthen vessel, especially a pot in which metals were tried”), from Latin testum (“the lid of an earthen vessel, an earthen vessel, an earthen pot”), from *terstus, past participle of the root *tersa (“dry land”). See terra, thirst.

noun

1. A challenge, trial.
   Numerous experimental tests and other observations have been offered in favor of animal mind reading, and although many scientists are skeptical, others assert that humans are not the only species capable of representing what others do and don’t perceive and know. 2012 March-April, Colin Allen, “Do I See What You See?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2012-04-26, page 168
2. A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
3. (academia) An examination, given often during the academic term.
4. A session in which a product, piece of equipment, or system is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.
   It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!
5. (cricket, normally "Test") A Test match.
6. (marine biology) The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins.
7. (botany) Testa; seed coat.
8. (obsolete) Judgment; distinction; discrimination.

verb

1. To challenge.
   Climbing the mountain tested our stamina.
2. To refine (gold, silver, etc.) in a test or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
3. To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try.
   to test the soundness of a principle
   to test the validity of an argument
   September 17, 1796, George Washington, Farewell Address Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution.
4. (academics) To administer or assign an examination, often given during the academic term, to (somebody).
5. To place a product or piece of equipment under everyday and/or extreme conditions and examine it for its durability, etc.
   Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems–[…]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies. 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 2013-04-24, page 200
6. (copulative) To be shown to be by test.
   He tested positive for cancer.
   It is probable that children who test above 180 IQ are actually present in our juvenile population in greater frequency than at the rate of one in a million. 2015, Leta Stetter Hollingworth, Harry Levi Hollingworth, Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development
7. (chemistry) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent.
   to test a solution by litmus paper

Etymology 2

From Middle English teste, from Old French teste, test and Latin testis (“one who attests, a witness”).

noun

1. (obsolete) A witness.
   1523-1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Froissart's Chronicles Prelates and great lords of England, who were for the more surety tests of that deed.

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To attest (a document) legally, and date it.
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To make a testament, or will.

Etymology 3

Clipping of testosterone.

noun

1. (informal, slang, body building) testosterone