Editing Assay (section)

==Etymology==
According to Etymology Online,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=assay|title=Online Etymology Dictionary - Assay |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= 2016|website= etymonline|publisher=Douglas Harper |access-date= 13 Aug 2016}}</ref> the verb ''assay'' means "to try, endeavor, strive, test the quality of"; from Anglo-French ''assaier'', from ''assai'' (noun), from Old French ''essai'', "trial". Thus the noun ''assay'' means "trial, test of quality, test of character" (from mid-14th century), from Anglo-French ''assai''; and its meaning "analysis" is from the late 14th century.

For [[Metallurgical assay|assay of currency coins]] this literally meant analysis of the purity of the gold or silver (or whatever the precious component) that represented the true value of the coin. This might have translated later (possibly after the 14th century) into a broader usage of "analysis",{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} e.g., in pharmacology, analysis for an important component of a target inside a mixture—such as the [[active ingredient]] of a drug inside the inert [[excipient]]s in a formulation that previously was measured only grossly by its observable action on an organism (e.g., a lethal dose or inhibitory dose).