Etymology

experience

ex·pe·ri·ence
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Today it means: The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering. Full definition →

Middle English experience ← Latin experientia
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromexperientia“a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromexperience
  3. English todayexperience

From Middle English experience, from Old French, from Latin experientia (“a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience”), from experiens, present participle of experiri (“to try, put to the test, undertake, undergo”), from ex (“out”) + peritus (“experienced, expert”), past participle of *periri (“to go through”); see expert and peril. Displaced native Old English āfandung (“experience”) and āfandian (“to experience”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.