assayer
(əˈseɪə(r))
Also 5 assayar, 5–7 assaier, -or, -our.
[a. AF. assaior, -our, f. assayer to assay. See -er1.]
1. One who tries, finds out by trial, or attempts.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xlii. (1495) 158 Wyse men and assayers telle that..that gutte..is alwaye founde voyde and empti. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xi. 58 As experience wole nedis proue to eche asaier. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 173 The Assayers have Christian dispositions. |
2. One who assays metals.
| [1423 Act 2 Hen. VI, xii, Et que ceux assaiour, controllour soient vaillantes, credible et expertz persones eiantes notorie science en la mestiere d'orfeour et de mynt.] 1618 Pulton transl., And that the Assaier and Comptroller be expert men. 1641 Termes de la Ley 27 Assayer is an officer of the Mint appointed by the Statute of 2. H. 6. cap. 12. 1796 Pearson in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 410 The Assayers observe it from charges of lead with silver. 1852 M{supc}Culloch Taxation ii. vi. §2. 275 The offence of counterfeiting..the marks, stamps, &c., impressed on plate by the assayers, was formerly felony. 1860 W. White Wrekin xxvi. 272 Borax is the flux of assayers. |
3. An officer who tastes food before it is served to a prince or lord, a fore-taster (L. prægustātor).
(This sense of the word seems to have originated in a corruption of, or confusion with, asseour, ‘he who sets the table,’ f. F. asseoir ‘to seat, set,’ apparently the original name of this officer, referring to another duty: see also assewer.)
| [c 1315 Househ. Ord. Ed. II, transl. 1601 (1876) §26 The kinge shal have a squier surveiour and warden of the viandes for his mouth, and to take the assay at his table [Fr. asseour de sa table]. ibid. §37 Three esquiers assaiors of the messe [Fr. asseours de la messe] in the hal, ought to sett the messes in the halles, and that with as good advisement as thei can, so as men of state and others be servid according to their estate. ibid. §§48, 49, 50 The asseour of the kinges table.] ? c 1400 K. Robt. Cysille in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 276 Thou schalt ete on the grownde, Thyn assayar schalle be an hownde. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 154 An Assayer or tryer, He that assayeth or tasteth first, Prægustator. 1861 Our Eng. Homes 60 The assayer and his office. |