"J'essaie"

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 Words have different meanings in different languages. This is the first thing that one should learn when trying to get into a new language. Even though some words may sound similar they could still mean the opposite. But more importantly, finding out the origin of that word can help in learning this new language or understand a language that you already know even further.


This is for example the case with the word "essay" in English. Whereas "essay" generally means any form of written text by an author the word "Essay/Essai" in German only means "trying" to write a text or an article about a special phenomenon that bothers or interests the author. In this German form of an essay, the author tries to create a personal confrontation with the topic while having a lot of freedom in his decision-making for the text.


While certainly, both words have their origin in the late Latin word "exagium" which means "weighing", especially the German word got influenced by the French word "J'essaie" which means "I try". It emphasizes the attempt of the author to deal with the specific topic and to stress the personal opinion on this topic. And as we can see in this example it is always fascinating to see how and what influences a whole language, and this could definitely be a topic for a German essay.

Comments

  1. dr. kyburzOctober 4, 2021 at 12:39 PM

    AHA! Yes, "essais" (the root) also means "trying." We have mangled that meaning so that it means The School Thing You Must Mandatorily Do. Too bad, cuz "trying" is more like it!

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