Etymology

experiment

ex·per·i·ment
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Today it means: A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Full definition →

Middle English experiment ← Old French esperiment ← Latin experimentum
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*per-
  2. Latin · derived fromexperimentum“experience, attempt, experiment”
  3. Old French · derived fromesperiment
  4. Middle English · inherited fromexperiment
  5. English todayexperiment

From Middle English experiment, from Old French esperiment (French expérience), from Latin experimentum (“experience, attempt, experiment”), from experior (“to experience, to attempt”), itself from ex + *perior, in turn from Proto-Indo-European *per-.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*per- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.