Etymology

sample

sam·ple
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Today it means: A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen. Full definition →

Middle English saumple ← Old French essample ← Latin exemplum
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromexemplum
  2. Old French · derived fromessample“example”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsaumple
  4. English todaysample

Inherited from Middle English saumple, sample, from Old French essample (“example”), from Latin exemplum. Doublet of example and exemplum.

Words from the same roots

Latinexemplum all →

exampleexemplarexemplifyexemplum

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.