essay word derived from

1590s, "trial, attempt, endeavor," also "short, discursive literary composition" (first attested in writings of Francis Bacon, probably in imitation of Montaigne), from French essai "trial, attempt, essay" (in Old French from 12c.), from Late Latin exagium "a weighing, a weight," from Latin exigere "drive out; require, exact; examine, try, test," from ex "out" (see ex- ) + agere "to set in motion, drive" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move") apparently meaning here "to weigh." The suggestion is of unpolished writing. Compare assay , also examine .

"to put to proof, test the mettle of," late 15c., from French essaier , from essai "trial, attempt" (see essay (n.)). This sense has mostly gone with the divergent spelling assay . Meaning "to attempt" is from 1640s. Related: Essayed ; essaying .

Entries linking to essay

c. 1300, "to try, endeavor, strive; test the quality of," from Anglo-French assaier , from assai (n.), from Old French assai , variant of essai "trial" (see essay (n.)). Related: Assayed ; assaying .

c. 1300, "put (someone) to question in regard to knowledge, competence, or skill, inquire into qualifications or capabilities;" mid-14c., "inspect or survey (something) carefully, scrutinize, view or observe in all aspects with the purpose of forming a correct opinion or judgment," from Old French examiner "interrogate, question, torture," from Latin examinare "to test or try; consider, ponder," literally "to weigh," from examen "a means of weighing or testing," probably ultimately from exigere "demand, require, enforce," literally "to drive or force out," also "to finish, measure," from ex "out" (see ex- ) + agere "to set in motion, drive, drive forward; to do, perform" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move"). Legal sense of "question or hear (a witness in court)" is from early 15c. Related: Examined ; examining .

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What does the noun essay mean?

There are 12 meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun essay , nine of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

essay has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun essay ?

How is the noun essay pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun essay come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun essay is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for essay is from 1597, in the writing of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor, politician, and philosopher.

It is also recorded as a verb from the Middle English period (1150—1500).

essay is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French essai .

Nearby entries

• esrache, v. 1477
• esraj, n. 1921–
• ESRO, n. 1961–
• ess, n. 1540–
• -ess, suffix¹
• -ess, suffix²
• essamplerie, n. 1393
• essart, n. 1656–
• essart, v. 1675–
• essarting, n. a1821–
• essay, n. 1597–
• essay, v. 1483–
• essayal, n. 1837–
• essayer, n. 1611–
• essayette, n. 1877–
• essayfy, v. 1815–
• essay-hatch, n. 1721–
• essayical, adj. 1860–
• essaying, n. 1861–
• essaying, adj. 1641–
• essayish, adj. 1863–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for essay, n..

essay, n. was first published in 1891; not yet revised.

essay, n. was last modified in June 2024.

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Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into essay, n. in June 2024.

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Etymology of the literary form "essay"

I am currently reading The Creators by Daniel Boorstin and came across the account of how Montaigne essentially created the essay as a literary form. Montaigne used the word "Essays" for his work because the work was an attempt by him to record his thoughts (to "essay" means to "attempt" something in old French). Future works of a similar vein have been called essays after Montaigne's work. This is corroborated by multiple online sources as well.

Boorstin mentions in passing that Montaigne might have come across this sense of the word "Essay" in the Floral Games that he attended as a child in Toulouse. Apparently, in these games, if there is a tie between poets in a poetry contest, the tiebreaker would be decided by giving the poets an incomplete poem and by having them attempt to complete it as best as they could. Whoever has the better attempt is judged the winner. This tiebreaker, Boorstin claims, was called an essay. I couldn't find any corroboration for this online. Have any of you heard this theory before? Your thoughts/references would be much appreciated.

• 1 Essay is not only old French. The verb essayer (to try) is modern French too. –  Drew Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:19
• "To essay" means "to attempt" in English. The OED says of the usage of "essay" as a composition of moderate length "is apparently taken from Montaigne, whose Essais were first published in 1580." –  Alan Carmack Commented Dec 11, 2016 at 10:07

I found what I believe to be the original source for the theory: A Suggestion as to the Source of Montaigne's Title: "Essais" , which was published in 1936. Unfortunately, (for most of you) it's behind a paywall. I'm paying a lot of money towards tuition right now, so I have access and I'll provide some quotes.

It's true that the Floral Games had a tiebreaker known as an Essay :

The Essay was a regulation formulated in 1540 to meet the difficulty which arose of having to choose from among a number of contestants of equal skill and merit. After unanimously awarding the Violet to Jehan Corrière, a student in the University of Toulouse, the judges had difficulty in awarding the Marigold and Églantine, for there were four other candidates whose poems appeared to be of equal value. After deliberation it was decided to put the four to a test ( examen ). To each was assigned a certain refrain upon which he was required to construct an impromptu huitain or dixain .

It bases the theory off of the following:

It is conjectured from the character of his learning displayed in the Essais that he then took the two years of the course in philosophy at Bordeaux, and that between 1548 and 1554, when he became a conseiller in the Cours des Aides at Perigueux, he completed the law course at Toulouse. In the sixteenth century most of the contestants at the annual meetings of the Floral Games were students in the University, many of them law students. Since the connection between the students and the Floral Games was so close, it is quite certain that Montaigne would have been familiar with the annual programs and the trial by Essay . Since the Essay was an impromptu trial or test it is possible that Montaigne caught the idea of his title from it, as he uses the word in precisely the same sense as it was used at Toulouse. Also there is a similarity between the composition of the Essays and the composition of the poems for the Essay at Toulouse. In his earlier essays Montaigne uses an anecdote or a quotation from the ancients as his starting point, around which he clusters his own observations.

As you can see, there's no hard proof that there's a connection. I believe the accepted theory is correct (it's from the Old French essai meaning trial).

Practising Reform in Montaigne's Essais

Montaigne's Essais, II, 10 ( dans le français original )

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• 1.1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.1.2.1 Derived terms
• 1.1.2.2 Related terms
• 1.1.2.3 Translations
• 1.2.1 Pronunciation
• 1.2.2.1 Translations
• 1.3 Anagrams
• 2.1 Etymology
• 2.2 Pronunciation
• 2.3.1 Hypernyms
• 2.3.2 Derived terms
• 2.3.3 Descendants
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2.1 Derived terms
• 3.3 References
• 4.1 Etymology
• 4.2.1 Derived terms
• 4.3 References

Etymology 1

Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay , essai ( “ essay ” ) , meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay , essai , assay , assai , from Latin exagium ( “ weight; weighing, testing on the balance ” ) , from exigere + -ium .

Pronunciation

• ( Received Pronunciation , General American ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (1), IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/ (2-4)

• Rhymes: -ɛseɪ
• Homophone : ese

essay ( plural essays )

• 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist ‎ [1] , volume 101 , number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017 , page 64 : In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”
• ( obsolete ) A test , experiment ; an assay .
• 1861 , E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley , page 16 : My first essay at getting employment was fruitless; but after no small number of mortifying rebuffs from various parties to whom I applied for assistance, I was at last rewarded by a comparative success.
• 1988 , James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , Oxford, published 2003 , page 455 : This was Lee's first essay in the kind of offensive-defensive strategy that was to become his hallmark.
• ( philately , finance ) A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote .

Derived terms

• argumentative essay
• automated essay scoring
• eight-legged essay
• essay question
• photo-essay
• photo essay

Related terms

Translations.

Etymology 2

From Middle French essayer , essaier , from Old French essaiier , essayer , essaier , assaiier , assayer , assaier , from essay , essai , assay , assai ( “ attempt; assay; experiment ” ) as above.

• ( UK , US ) IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseɪ/

essay ( third-person singular simple present essays , present participle essaying , simple past and past participle essayed )

• 1900 , Charles W. Chesnutt , chapter II, in The House Behind the Cedars : He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.
• 1950 April, R. A. H. Weight, “They Passed by My Window”, in Railway Magazine , page 260 : The train took the slow to branch spur at the north end at a not much slower speed, then essayed the short sharply curved climb with a terrific roar, smoke rising straight from the chimney to a height of some 60 ft., the long train twisting and curling behind.
• 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation ‎ [2] , archived from the original on 22 May 2024 : There was the counter, there was the bulletin board, above her the dull sound of music being played over headphones. Something jaunty. She liked the beat. Then the sound of a chair being pushed back, and someone humming as they walked away from her, and she darted up to plunge the bayonet into their kidneys from behind. A followup stroke through the back of the neck, and the second soldier was down. She didn't even stop to see if it was a man or a woman, young or old. There were further hurdles to essay before she reached her destination.
• ( intransitive ) To move forth, as into battle.
• Sayes , Seays , Sesay , eyass

Borrowed from English essay ( “ essay ” ) , from Middle French essai ( “ essay; attempt, assay ” ) , from Old French essai , from Latin exagium (whence the neuter gender).

• IPA ( key ) : /ɛˈseː/ , /ˈɛ.seː/
• Hyphenation: es‧say
• Rhymes: -eː

essay   n ( plural essays , diminutive essaytje   n )

Descendants

Norwegian bokmål.

Borrowed from English essay , from Middle French essai .

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay or essayer , definite plural essaya or essayene )

• an essay , a written composition of moderate length exploring a particular subject
• essaysamling
• “essay” in The Bokmål Dictionary .

Norwegian Nynorsk

essay   n ( definite singular essayet , indefinite plural essay , definite plural essaya )

• “essay” in The Nynorsk Dictionary .

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Definition: Essay

• 1 Etymology 1
• 2.1 Derived terms
• 2.2 Related terms
• 3 Etymology 2

Etymology 1

Since late sixteenth century, borrowed from Middle French essay , essai (essay), meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings "experiment, assay, attempt," from Old French essay , essai , assay , assai , from Latin exagium (weight, weighing, testing on the balance), from exigere + -ium .

essay (plural essays )

• A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
• A proposed design for a postage stamp or a banknote.

Derived terms

• essay question
• photo essay

Related terms

Etymology 2.

From Middle French essayer , essaier , from Old French essaiier , essayer , essaier , assaiier , assayer , assaier , from essay , essai , assay , assai (attempt, assay, experiment) as above.

essay (third-person singular simple present essays , present participle essaying , simple past and past participle essayed )

• To move forth, as into battle.

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors copied and adjusted this Wiktionary entry in accordance with NWE standards . This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit for this article is due to both New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions at Wiktionary is accessible to researchers here:

• essay   history

Types of Essay

Definition of types of essay, format of an essay, the format of an argumentative essay is given below:.

Function of Types of Essay

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• I have to write an essay this weekend.
• essay on something an essay on the causes of the First World War
• essay about somebody/something Have you done your essay about Napoleon yet?
• in an essay He made some very good points in his essay.
• Essays handed in late will not be accepted.
• Have you done your essay yet?
• He concludes the essay by calling for a corrective.
• I finished my essay about 10 o'clock last night!
• Lunch was the only time she could finish her essay assignment.
• We have to write an essay on the environment.
• You have to answer 3 out of 8 essay questions in the exam.
• the teenage winner of an essay contest
• We have to write an essay on the causes of the First World War.
• be entitled something
• be titled something
• address something
• in an/​the essay
• essay about

Take your English to the next level

The Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app

To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?

You'll know the difference if you give it the old college essay

Dictionary Entries Near essay

Cite this entry.

“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/essay. Accessed 10 Jul. 2024.

Kids Definition

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Writing an effective and impactful essay is crucial to your academic or professional success. Whether it’s getting into the college of your dreams or scoring high on a major assignment, writing a well-structured essay will help you achieve it all. But before you learn how to write an essay , you need to know its basic components.

In this article, we will understand what an essay is, how long it should be, and its different parts and types. We will also take a detailed look at relevant examples to better understand the essay structure.

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What is an essay?

An essay is a concise piece of nonfiction writing that aims to either inform the reader about a topic or argue a particular perspective. It can either be formal or informal in nature. Most academic essays are highly formal, whereas informal essays are commonly found in journal entries, social media, or even blog posts.

As we can see from this essay definition, the beauty of essays lies in their versatility. From the exploration of complex scientific concepts to the history and evolution of everyday objects, they can cover a vast range of topics.

How long is an essay?

The length of an essay can vary from a few hundred to several thousand words but typically falls between 500–5,000 words. However, there are exceptions to this norm, such as Joan Didion and David Sedaris who have written entire books of essays.

Let’s take a look at the different types of essays and their lengths with the help of the following table:

How many paragraphs are in an essay?

Typically, an essay has five paragraphs: an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs. However, there is no set rule about the number of paragraphs in an essay.

The number of paragraphs can vary depending on the type and scope of your essay. An expository or argumentative essay may require more body paragraphs to include all the necessary information, whereas a narrative essay may need fewer.

Structure of an essay

To enhance the coherence and readability of your essay, it’s important to follow certain rules regarding the structure. Take a look:

1. Arrange your information from the most simple to the most complex bits. You can start the body paragraph off with a general statement and then move on to specifics.

2. Provide the necessary background information at the beginning of your essay to give the reader the context behind your thesis statement.

3. Select topic statements that provide value, more information, or evidence for your thesis statement.

There are also various essay structures , such as the compare and contrast structure, chronological structure, problem method solution structure, and signposting structure that you can follow to create an organized and impactful essay.

Parts of an essay

An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion.

1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader’s attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.

2. The body is where you dive deeper into your topic and present your arguments and evidence. It usually consists of two paragraphs, but this can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing.

3. The conclusion brings your essay to a close and is typically one paragraph long. It should summarize the main points of the essay and leave the reader with something to think about.

The length of your paragraphs can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing. So, make sure you take the time to plan out your essay structure so each section flows smoothly into the next.

Introduction

When it comes to writing an essay, the introduction is a critical component that sets the tone for the entire piece. A well-crafted introduction not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides them with a clear understanding of what the essay is all about. An essay editor can help you achieve this, but it’s best to know the brief yourself!

Let’s take a look at how to write an attractive and informative introductory paragraph.

1. Construct an attractive hook

To grab the reader’s attention, an opening statement or hook is crucial. This can be achieved by incorporating a surprising statistic, a shocking fact, or an interesting anecdote into the beginning of your piece.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about water conservation you can begin your essay with, “Clean drinking water, a fundamental human need, remains out of reach for more than one billion people worldwide. It deprives them of a basic human right and jeopardizes their health and wellbeing.”

2. Provide sufficient context or background information

An effective introduction should begin with a brief description or background of your topic. This will help provide context and set the stage for your discussion.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about climate change, you start by describing the current state of the planet and the impact that human activity is having on it.

3. Construct a well-rounded and comprehensive thesis statement

A good introduction should also include the main message or thesis statement of your essay. This is the central argument that you’ll be making throughout the piece. It should be clear, concise, and ideally placed toward the end of the introduction.

By including these elements in your introduction, you’ll be setting yourself up for success in the rest of your essay.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Essay introduction example

• Background information
• Thesis statement

The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane in 1903 revolutionized the way humans travel and explore the world. Prior to this invention, transportation relied on trains, boats, and cars, which limited the distance and speed of travel. However, the airplane made air travel a reality, allowing people to reach far-off destinations in mere hours. This breakthrough paved the way for modern-day air travel, transforming the world into a smaller, more connected place. In this essay, we will explore the impact of the Wright Brothers’ invention on modern-day travel, including the growth of the aviation industry, increased accessibility of air travel to the general public, and the economic and cultural benefits of air travel.

Body paragraphs

You can persuade your readers and make your thesis statement compelling by providing evidence, examples, and logical reasoning. To write a fool-proof and authoritative essay, you need to provide multiple well-structured, substantial arguments.

Let’s take a look at how this can be done:

1. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph

The beginning of each of your body paragraphs should contain the main arguments that you’d like to address. They should provide ground for your thesis statement and make it well-rounded. You can arrange these arguments in several formats depending on the type of essay you’re writing.

2. Provide the supporting information

The next point of your body paragraph should provide supporting information to back up your main argument. Depending on the type of essay, you can elaborate on your main argument with the help of relevant statistics, key information, examples, or even personal anecdotes.

3. Analyze the supporting information

After providing relevant details and supporting information, it is important to analyze it and link it back to your main argument.

4. Create a smooth transition to the next paragraph

End one body paragraph with a smooth transition to the next. There are many ways in which this can be done, but the most common way is to give a gist of your main argument along with the supporting information with transitory words such as “however” “in addition to” “therefore”.

Here’s an example of a body paragraph.

Essay body paragraph example

• Topic sentence
• Supporting information
• Analysis of the information
• Smooth transition to the next paragraph

The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane revolutionized air travel. They achieved the first-ever successful powered flight with the Wright Flyer in 1903, after years of conducting experiments and studying flight principles. Despite their first flight lasting only 12 seconds, it was a significant milestone that paved the way for modern aviation. The Wright Brothers’ success can be attributed to their systematic approach to problem-solving, which included numerous experiments with gliders, the development of a wind tunnel to test their designs, and meticulous analysis and recording of their results. Their dedication and ingenuity forever changed the way we travel, making modern aviation possible.

A powerful concluding statement separates a good essay from a brilliant one. To create a powerful conclusion, you need to start with a strong foundation.

Let’s take a look at how to construct an impactful concluding statement.

1. Restructure your thesis statement

To conclude your essay effectively, don’t just restate your thesis statement. Instead, use what you’ve learned throughout your essay and modify your thesis statement accordingly. This will help you create a conclusion that ties together all of the arguments you’ve presented.

2. Summarize the main points of your essay

The next point of your conclusion consists of a summary of the main arguments of your essay. It is crucial to effectively summarize the gist of your essay into one, well-structured paragraph.

3. Create a lasting impression with your concluding statement

Conclude your essay by including a key takeaway, or a powerful statement that creates a lasting impression on the reader. This can include the broader implications or consequences of your essay topic.

Here’s an example of a concluding paragraph.

Essay conclusion example

• Restated thesis statement
• Summary of the main points
• Broader implications of the thesis statement

The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane forever changed history by paving the way for modern aviation and countless aerospace advancements. Their persistence, innovation, and dedication to problem-solving led to the first successful powered flight in 1903, sparking a revolution in transportation that transformed the world. Today, air travel remains an integral part of our globalized society, highlighting the undeniable impact of the Wright Brothers’ contribution to human civilization.

Types of essays

Most essays are derived from the combination or variation of these four main types of essays . let’s take a closer look at these types.

1. Narrative essay

A narrative essay is a type of writing that involves telling a story, often based on personal experiences. It is a form of creative nonfiction that allows you to use storytelling techniques to convey a message or a theme.

2. Descriptive essay

A descriptive essay aims to provide an immersive experience for the reader by using sensory descriptors. Unlike a narrative essay, which tells a story, a descriptive essay has a narrower scope and focuses on one particular aspect of a story.

3. Argumentative essays

An argumentative essay is a type of essay that aims to persuade the reader to adopt a particular stance based on factual evidence and is one of the most common forms of college essays.

4. Expository essays

An expository essay is a common format used in school and college exams to assess your understanding of a specific topic. The purpose of an expository essay is to present and explore a topic thoroughly without taking any particular stance or expressing personal opinions.

While this article demonstrates what is an essay and describes its types, you may also have other doubts. As experts who provide essay editing and proofreading services , we’re here to help. 

Our team has created a list of resources to clarify any doubts about writing essays. Keep reading to write engaging and well-organized essays!

• How to Write an Essay in 8 Simple Steps
• How to Write an Essay Header
• How to Write an Essay Outline

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between an argumentative and an expository essay, what is the difference between a narrative and a descriptive essay, what is an essay format, what is the meaning of essay, what is the purpose of writing an essay.

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The Etymology of Words and Their Surprising Histories

The Surprising Origins of Everyday Words

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The etymology of a word refers to its origin and historical development: that is, its earliest known use, its transmission from one language to another, and its changes in form and meaning . Etymology is also the term for the branch of linguistics that studies word histories.

What's the Difference Between a Definition and an Etymology?

A definition tells us what a word means and how it's used in our own time. An etymology tells us where a word came from (often, but not always, from another language) and what it used to mean.

For example, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , the definition of the word disaster is "an occurrence causing widespread destruction and distress; a catastrophe" or "a grave misfortune." But the etymology of the word disaster takes us back to a time when people commonly blamed great misfortunes on the influence of the stars.

Disaster first appeared in English in the late 16th century, just in time for Shakespeare to use the word in the play King Lear . It arrived by way of the Old Italian word disastro , which meant "unfavorable to one's stars."

This older, astrological sense of disaster becomes easier to understand when we study its Latin root word , astrum , which also appears in our modern "star" word astronomy . With the negative Latin prefix dis- ("apart") added to astrum ("star"), the word (in Latin, Old Italian, and Middle French) conveyed the idea that a catastrophe could be traced to the "evil influence of a star or planet" (a definition that the dictionary tells us is now " obsolete ").

Is the Etymology of a Word Its True Definition?

Not at all, though people sometimes try to make this argument. The word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymon , which means "the true sense of a word." But in fact the original meaning of a word is often different from its contemporary definition.

The meanings of many words have changed over time, and older senses of a word may grow uncommon or disappear entirely from everyday use. Disaster , for instance, no longer means the "evil influence of a star or planet," just as consider no longer means "to observe the stars."

Let's look at another example. Our English word salary is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary  as "fixed compensation for services, paid to a person on a regular basis." Its etymology can be traced back 2,000 years to sal , the Latin word for salt. So what's the connection between salt and salary?

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder tells us that "in Rome, a soldier was paid in salt," which back then was widely used as a food preservative. Eventually, this salarium came to signify a stipend paid in any form, usually money. Even today the expression "worth your salt" indicates that you're working hard and earning your salary. However, this doesn't mean that salt is the true definition of salary .

Where Do Words Come From?

New words have entered (and continue to enter) the English language in many different ways. Here are some of the most common methods.

• Borrowing The majority of the words used in modern English have been borrowed from other languages. Although most of our vocabulary comes from Latin and Greek (often by way of other European languages), English has borrowed words from more than 300 different languages around the world. Here are just a few examples: futon (from the Japanese word for "bedclothes, bedding")
• hamster (Middle High German hamastra )
• kangaroo (Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, gangurru , referring to a species of kangaroo)
• kink (Dutch, "twist in a rope")
• moccasin (Native American Indian, Virginia Algonquian, akin to Powhatan mäkäsn and Ojibwa makisin )
• molasses (Portuguese melaços , from Late Latin mellceum , from Latin mel , "honey")
• muscle (Latin musculus , "mouse")
• slogan (alteration of Scots slogorne , "battle cry")
• smorgasbord (Swedish, literally "bread and butter table")
• whiskey (Old Irish uisce , "water," and bethad , "of life")
• Clipping or Shortening Some new words are simply shortened forms of existing words, for instance indie from independent ; exam from examination ; flu from influenza , and fax from facsimile .
• Compounding A new word may also be created by combining two or more existing words: fire engine , for example, and babysitter .
• Blends A blend, also called a portmanteau word , is a word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words. Examples include moped , from mo(tor) + ped(al), and brunch , from br(eakfast) + (l)unch.
• Conversion or Functional Shift New words are often formed by changing an existing word from one part of speech to another. For example, innovations in technology have encouraged the transformation of the nouns network , Google , and  microwave  into verbs.
• Transfer of Proper Nouns Sometimes the names of people, places, and things become generalized vocabulary words. For instance, the noun maverick was derived from the name of an American cattleman, Samuel Augustus Maverick. The saxophone was named after Sax , the surname of a 19th-century Belgian family that made musical instruments.
• Neologisms or Creative Coinages Now and then, new products or processes inspire the creation of entirely new words. Such neologisms are usually short lived, never even making it into a dictionary. Nevertheless, some have endured, for example quark (coined by novelist James Joyce), galumph (Lewis Carroll), aspirin (originally a trademark ), grok (Robert A. Heinlein).
• Imitation of Sounds Words are also created by onomatopoeia, naming things by imitating the sounds that are associated with them: boo, bow-wow, tinkle, click .

Why Should We Care About Word Histories?

If a word's etymology is not the same as its definition, why should we care at all about word histories? Well, for one thing, understanding how words have developed can teach us a great deal about our cultural history. In addition, studying the histories of familiar words can help us deduce the meanings of unfamiliar words, thereby enriching our vocabularies. Finally, word stories are often both entertaining and thought provoking. In short, as any youngster can tell you, words are fun .

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Definition of Essay

Essay is derived from the French word essayer , which means “ to attempt ,” or “ to try .” An essay is a short form of literary composition based on a single subject matter, and often gives the personal opinion of the author. A famous English essayist, Aldous Huxley defines essays as, “a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything. ” The Oxford Dictionary describes it as “ a short piece of writing on a particular subject. ” In simple words, we can define it as a scholarly work in writing that provides the author’s personal argument .

Types of Essay

There are two forms of essay: literary and non-literary. Literary essays are of four types:

• Expository Essay – In an expository essay , the writer gives an explanation of an idea, theme , or issue to the audience by giving his personal opinions. This essay is presented through examples, definitions, comparisons, and contrast .
• Descriptive Essay – As it sounds, this type of essay gives a description about a particular topic, or describes the traits and characteristics of something or a person in detail. It allows artistic freedom, and creates images in the minds of readers through the use of the five senses.
• Narrative Essay – Narrative essay is non- fiction , but describes a story with sensory descriptions. The writer not only tells a story, but also makes a point by giving reasons.
• Persuasive Essay – In this type of essay, the writer tries to convince his readers to adopt his position or point of view on an issue, after he provides them solid reasoning in this connection. It requires a lot of research to claim and defend an idea. It is also called an argumentative essay .

Non-literary essays could also be of the same types but they could be written in any format.

Examples of Essay in Literature

Example #1: the sacred grove of oshogbo (by jeffrey tayler).

“As I passed through the gates I heard a squeaky voice . A diminutive middle-aged man came out from behind the trees — the caretaker. He worked a toothbrush-sized stick around in his mouth, digging into the crevices between algae’d stubs of teeth. He was barefoot; he wore a blue batik shirt known as a buba, baggy purple trousers, and an embroidered skullcap. I asked him if he would show me around the shrine. Motioning me to follow, he spat out the results of his stick work and set off down the trail.”

This is an example of a descriptive essay, as the author has used descriptive language to paint a dramatic picture for his readers of an encounter with a stranger.

Example #2: Of Love (By Francis Bacon)

“It is impossible to love, and be wise … Love is a child of folly. … Love is ever rewarded either with the reciprocal, or with an inward and secret contempt. You may observe that amongst all the great and worthy persons…there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shows that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion…That he had preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas. For whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection quitted both riches and wisdom.”

In this excerpt, Bacon attempts to persuade readers that people who want to be successful in this world must never fall in love. By giving an example of famous people like Paris, who chose Helen as his beloved but lost his wealth and wisdom, the author attempts to convince the audience that they can lose their mental balance by falling in love.

Example #3: The Autobiography of a Kettle (By John Russell)

“I am afraid I do not attract attention, and yet there is not a single home in which I could done without. I am only a small, black kettle but I have much to interest me, for something new happens to me every day. The kitchen is not always a cheerful place in which to live, but still I find plenty of excitement there, and I am quite happy and contented with my lot …”

In this example, the author is telling an autobiography of a kettle, and describes the whole story in chronological order. The author has described the kettle as a human being, and allows readers to feel, as he has felt.

Function of Essay

The function of an essay depends upon the subject matter, whether the writer wants to inform, persuade, explain, or entertain. In fact, the essay increases the analytical and intellectual abilities of the writer as well as readers. It evaluates and tests the writing skills of a writer, and organizes his or her thinking to respond personally or critically to an issue. Through an essay, a writer presents his argument in a more sophisticated manner. In addition, it encourages students to develop concepts and skills, such as analysis, comparison and contrast , clarity, exposition , conciseness, and persuasion .

Did you know the word ‘essay’ is derived from a Latin word ‘exagium’, which roughly translates to presenting one’s case? So essays are a short piece of writing representing one’s side of the argument or one’s experiences, stories, etc. Essays are very personalized. So let us learn about types of essays, format, and tips for essay-writing.

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An essay is generally a short piece of writing outlining the writer’s perspective or story . It is often considered synonymous with a story or a paper or an article. Essays can be formal as well as informal. Formal essays are generally academic in nature and tackle serious topics. We will be focusing on informal essays which are more personal and often have humorous elements.

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Get 500+ Essay Topics and Ideas for College and School Students here .

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Types of Essays

The type of essay will depend on what the writer wants to convey to his reader. There are broadly four types of essays. Let us see.

• Narrative Essays: This is when the writer is narrating an incident or story through the essay. So these are in the first person. The aim when writing narrative essays is to involve the reader in them as if they were right there when it was happening. So make them as vivid and real as possible. One way to make this possible is to follow the principle of ‘show, don’t tell’. So you must involve the reader in the story.
• Descriptive Essays : Here the writer will describe a place, an object, an event or maybe even a memory. But it is not just plainly describing things. The writer must paint a picture through his words. One clever way to do that is to evoke the senses of the reader. Do not only rely on sight but also involve the other senses of smell, touch, sound etc. A descriptive essay when done well will make the reader feel the emotions the writer was feeling at the moment.
• Expository Essays: In such an essay a writer presents a balanced study of a topic. To write such an essay, the writer must have real and extensive knowledge about the subject. There is no scope for the writer’s feelings or emotions in an expository essay. It is completely based on facts, statistics, examples etc. There are sub-types here like contrast essays, cause and effect essays etc.
• Persuasive Essays : Here the purpose of the essay is to get the reader to your side of the argument. A persuasive essay is not just a presentation of facts but an attempt to convince the reader of the writer’s point of view. Both sides of the argument have to presented in these essays. But the ultimate aim is to persuade the readers that the writer’s argument carries more weight.

Learn more about Letter Writing here in detail .

Format of an Essay

Now there is no rigid format of an essay. It is a creative process so it should not be confined within boundaries. However, there is a basic structure that is generally followed while writing essays. So let us take a look at the general structure of an essay.

Introduction

This is the first paragraph of your essay. This is where the writer introduces his topic for the very first time. You can give a very brief synopsis of your essay in the introductory paragraph. Some paragraph writing skills can be a help here. Generally, it is not very long, about 4-6 lines.

There is plenty of scopes to get creative in the introduction of essays. This will ensure that you hook the reader, i.e. draw and keep his attention. So to do so you can start with a quote or a proverb . Sometimes you can even start with a definition. Another interesting strategy to engage with your reader is to start with a question.

This is the main crux of your essays. The body is the meat of your essay sandwiched between the introduction and the conclusion. So the most vital and important content of the essay will be here. This need not be confined to one paragraph. It can extend to two or more paragraphs according to the content.

Usually, we have a lot of information to provide in the body. And the mistakes writers generally make is to go about it in a haphazard manner which leaves the reader confused. So it is important to organize your thoughts and content. Write the information in a systematic flow so that the reader can comprehend. So, for example, you were narrating an incident . The best manner to do this would be to go in a chronological order.

Learn more about Story Writing here in detail .

This is the last paragraph of the essay. Sometimes a conclusion will just mirror the introductory paragraph but make sure the words and syntax are different. A conclusion is also a great place to sum up a story or an argument. You can round up your essay by providing some moral or wrapping up a story. Make sure you complete your essays with the conclusion, leave no hanging threads.

Tips for Essay Writing

• Give your essays an interesting and appropriate title. It will help draw the attention of the reader and pique their curiosity
• Keep it between 300-500 words. This is the ideal length, you can take creative license to increase or decrease it
• Keep your language simple and crisp. Unnecessary complicated and difficult words break the flow of the sentence.
• Do not make grammar mistakes , use correct punctuation and spellings . If this is not done it will distract the reader from the content
• Before beginning the essay organize your thought and plot a rough draft . This way you can ensure the story will flow and not be an unorganized mess.

Solved Question for You

Q: What is a thesis statement of essays?

Ans: The thesis statement is a clear, one-sentence explanation of your position that leaves no doubt in the readers’ mind about which side you are on from the beginning of your essay.

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Essay Generator

For people who love writing, essay writing to them is easy as writing down their names. But for those who are just required to write in one of their subjects, essay writing feels like the only thing they can write on their papers is their own name. But even with this fact, we all know how essay has affected our lives in some ways particularly in our academic life and it also affects our future as members of the corporate world.

An essay is a formal and organized piece of writing or composition that contains arguments, explanation, descriptions, observations, or opinions on a particular topic.

The word ‘essay’ is derived from the Latin word ‘exagium’ that means the presentation of a case and also derived from French infinitive essayer that means “to attempt”.

No matter what type of essay, it follows a uniform structure which consists of the parts of an essay . The structure starts with the introduction, followed by the body, and ended with the conclusion.

Simple Steps in Writing an Essay

Writing essays might be difficult for some people, but with these simple steps in writing a basic essay , anyone can put their words on paper easily and anyone can already join essay writing contests with confidence:

1. Read a lot of essays

2. Define your purpose for writing

3. Decide on a topic

4. Brainstorm the points and ideas that will be included in the essay

5. Organize the points and ideas in an outline or a diagram

6. Construct the introduction, followed by the thesis statement It is in the introduction where the main points are briefly stated. The main points will be further discussed in the body of the essay.

7. Construct the body The body is where the main topics are further elaborated and where the subpoints are also found. Oftentimes, the body consists of three paragraphs and each paragraph contains one of the main topics mentioned in the introduction of the essay .

8. Construct the conclusion The conclusion is where the main points are being briefly mentioned again although no other idea will be introduced. The conclusion is where all the ideas stated in the body of the essay are summed up.

9. Relentlessly edit until satisfied

10. Review work by reading it all over again before turning it over for submission

Purposes for Writing Essays

Every essay has a purpose, namely: to inform, to persuade, to explain, and to entertain.

Information

Writers that write essays that aims to inform has a goal to give its readers an information that can be new, changed, or updated. They can also write on topics that most people get the wrong information about or even provide an in-depth information regarding a certain topic. It is a must that an informative essay is based on accurate and verified facts that are organized in a comprehensive manner.

When writing an essay that aims to persuade the readers, the goal is to make your readers take action. Any writer who attempts to write this kind of essay must do extensive research in order to be able to fully support its thesis statement or its claim, and of course, to make the readers believe in their stance.

Explanatory

Explanatory essays usually contain a simplification of a process that you chosen audience would usually have difficulty in executing. A writer’s goal when writing this kind of essay is to make sure that they made their readers understand two things: the topic and how the composition is written. Writers should never compromise the writing the steps since this would affect how the readers will apply what they have read.

Entertainment

Writing to entertain means the writer would have to affect the emotions of the readers. Entertainment can be done through inducing laughter, tears, or even fright from the readers.

Types of Essay and Examples

While there is a vast number of the types of essays available, this article features eleven types of essay, each provided with an example. Each type of essay has a common ground and that is they have the objective to present the readers a topic that can affect them in various ways such as their beliefs, stances, and even a new body of knowledge.

Academic Essay Plan Template Example

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Argumentative Essay Format Template

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Argumentative Essay Writing Template

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College Narrative Essay Template Example

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College Essay Outline Template Example

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Comparative Essay Plan Template Example

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Descriptive Essay Outline Template

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Descriptive Narrative Essay Template

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Digital Essay Template Example

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Opinion Essay Template Example

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Personal Essay Example

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What is the language of origin of 'monarch'?

The English word monarch was derived in the mid 15th century from the L. Latin word monarcha, which derived from the Greek word monarkhes.

Argon is derived from which Greek word?

Where is the word horny derived from.

The word horny is derived from Greek mythology. The god Pan was always after the nymphs but they always turned him down. Because he had horns, the word horny got associated with anyone who was after someone.

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'Kilo' is derived from a Greek word meaning thousand.

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LATE 14th Century Old French derived from Latin, derived from Old Latin, derived from Porot-Latin "gnoscere", meaning "to know".

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Five common English words we don’t know the origins of – including ‘boy’ and ‘dog’

Associate Professor in Linguistics, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

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The naming process, the act of naming the items of the world, is as old as the first words spoken by our ancestors . We can reconstruct the stages of this process through etymology, which studies the historical development of the lexicon of a language.

English words tell a lot of stories. To get back to their origins, linguists apply the comparative method . Languages are not isolated entities, but belong to linguistic families – English is a west Germanic language from the Indo-European family, for example – and their vocabularies are connected.

In the comparative method, linguists compare cognates (the same words in different-but-related languages, like mother in English, māter in Latin, and mutter in German) and reconstruct the ways these words were pronounced by ancient speakers.

By doing this, linguists give a voice to our ancestors, travelling back in time towards prehistoric ages with no written records. It’s difficult and complex, but very cool stuff.

However, the process doesn’t always work. The English lexicon includes some terms known as “proper words”, which today apparently exist only in English. Cognates for them cannot be found in any other language.

These are very simple and common words but being unique, we cannot apply the comparative method to them and therefore cannot reconstruct their origins. These “proper words” represent an exciting puzzle of the English language. Here are five examples.

“Bird” sounds Germanic, but doesn’t have cognates in any other Germanic language. It can be found in Old English as a rare variant of bridd , indicating a “young bird”.

Old English speakers used fugel , as in “fowl”, as a standard term for bird. Up to the 15th century, “bird” was used not only to describe a young bird, but also a young animal in general – even a fish or a child.

Who (or what) was, originally, a “boy”? No one knows. In the 13th century, a boie was a servant, but already in that time the provenance of the word was obscure. A century later, the term started being used to indicate a male child. The word doesn’t sound Germanic, but it’s not clear whether it was imported to England by the Normans either.

One interpretation traces back the term to an unattested vulgar Latin verb, *imboiare (in etymological notation, the asterisk indicates a word that has been reconstructed on the basis of the comparative method, rather than found in source material), possibly connected with the Latin boia , meaning yoke or collar, and with the concept of slavery.

Since the 14th century, gyrle was a word used to indicate a child, with no gender distinction. Despite the apparent simplicity of the term, so far nobody has been able to reconstruct its origins. Some scholars have connected it with the Old English word gierela , meaning garment, with a semantic transition presumed from “child’s apron (garment)” to, simply, “child”.

Others think that “girl” belongs to a set of words that also includes “boy”, “lass” and “lad”, which could have derived from other terms that cannot be directly linked to them any more. Whatever the truth is, the mystery of “girl” persists.

“Dog” comes from Old English docga , a very rare word later used in Middle English to depict a specific, strong breed – the mastiff.

In Old English, hund was the general Germanic word until the term docga replaced it almost completely in the 16th century. Now, “hound” is semantically specialised and indicates a hunting dog. So far, nobody has been able to reconstruct the etymological root of docga , and no ancient English word appears to be related to it.

“Dog” is therefore a true lexicological mystery of the English vocabulary. Probably the breed it was originally indicating became popular enough to be identified with the notion of “dog” in itself, but this doesn’t explain the provenance of the word.

The same puzzling origins are shared by other zoological terms in the English lexicon, like “pig, "stag” and “hog”, which are all etymologically unclear. Interestingly, the widespread word for “dog” in Spanish, perro , is also completely obscure in its origins.

5. Recorder

“Recorder” is something of an intruder in this list of etymological oddities, because we know its origins. It comes from the Middle French verb “recorder”, which meant to relate, repeat or recall, which in turn comes from the Latin recordārī .

However, the recorder I am referring to is not the device used to record but the “straight flute”, a musical instrument. Despite its very recognisable origins, no one knows why in English, the “straight flute” – flauto dolce , in Italian, flûte à bec in French, and blockflöte in German – is called a “recorder”. It certainly doesn’t record anything.

Historical sources have been confused since its first attestations. The earliest appearance of the word is from 1388, in a list (in Latin) of musical instruments owned by the future King Henry IV. There, it’s documented as “ i. fistula nomine Recordour ” (“a pipe called Recordour”). This makes it look like a proper noun, with the initial character capitalised. In 15th-century England, the word “recordour”, with a lowercase initial, meant a chief legal officer of a city.

There are some theories. The sound of the recorder was compared with that produced by birds’ songs, which are repetitive and, therefore, would develop a “recording” loop – but that feels far-fetched.

In the past, I have worked on the etymologies of the words “ocarina” and “gemshorn” , and my focus is now on “recorder”. The reconstruction of the origin stories of these “proper words” could tell us a lot about our ancestors, their mindsets, and their cognitive strategies in naming what was surrounding them.

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Five common English words we don't know the origins of—including 'boy' and 'dog'

by Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, The Conversation

The naming process, the act of naming the items of the world, is as old as the first words spoken by our ancestors . We can reconstruct the stages of this process through etymology, which studies the historical development of the lexicon of a language.

English words tell a lot of stories. To get back to their origins, linguists apply the comparative method . Languages are not isolated entities, but belong to linguistic families—English is a west Germanic language from the Indo-European family, for example—and their vocabularies are connected.

In the comparative method, linguists compare cognates (the same words in different-but-related languages, like mother in English, māter in Latin, and mutter in German) and reconstruct the ways these words were pronounced by ancient speakers.

By doing this, linguists give a voice to our ancestors, traveling back in time towards prehistoric ages with no written records. It's difficult and complex, but very cool stuff.

However, the process doesn't always work. The English lexicon includes some terms known as "proper words," which today apparently exist only in English. Cognates for them cannot be found in any other language.

These are very simple and common words but being unique, we cannot apply the comparative method to them and therefore cannot reconstruct their origins. These "proper words" represent an exciting puzzle of the English language. Here are five examples.

"Bird" sounds Germanic, but doesn't have cognates in any other Germanic language. It can be found in Old English as a rare variant of bridd, indicating a "young bird."

Old English speakers used fugel, as in "fowl," as a standard term for bird. Up to the 15th century, "bird" was used not only to describe a young bird, but also a young animal in general—even a fish or a child.

Who (or what) was, originally, a "boy"? No one knows. In the 13th century, a boie was a servant, but already in that time the provenance of the word was obscure. A century later, the term started being used to indicate a male child. The word doesn't sound Germanic, but it's not clear whether it was imported to England by the Normans either.

One interpretation traces back the term to an unattested vulgar Latin verb, *imboiare (in etymological notation, the asterisk indicates a word that has been reconstructed on the basis of the comparative method, rather than found in source material), possibly connected with the Latin boia, meaning yoke or collar, and with the concept of slavery.

Since the 14th century, gyrle was a word used to indicate a child, with no gender distinction. Despite the apparent simplicity of the term, so far nobody has been able to reconstruct its origins. Some scholars have connected it with the Old English word gierela, meaning garment, with a semantic transition presumed from "child's apron (garment)" to, simply, "child."

Others think that "girl" belongs to a set of words that also includes "boy," "lass" and "lad," which could have derived from other terms that cannot be directly linked to them any more. Whatever the truth is, the mystery of "girl" persists.

"Dog" comes from Old English docga , a very rare word later used in Middle English to depict a specific, strong breed—the mastiff.

In Old English, hund was the general Germanic word until the term docga replaced it almost completely in the 16th century. Now, "hound" is semantically specialized and indicates a hunting dog. So far, nobody has been able to reconstruct the etymological root of docga, and no ancient English word appears to be related to it.

"Dog" is therefore a true lexicological mystery of the English vocabulary. Probably the breed it was originally indicating became popular enough to be identified with the notion of "dog" in itself, but this doesn't explain the provenance of the word.

The same puzzling origins are shared by other zoological terms in the English lexicon, like "pig, "stag" and "hog," which are all etymologically unclear. Interestingly, the widespread word for "dog" in Spanish, perro, is also completely obscure in its origins.

5. Recorder

"Recorder" is something of an intruder in this list of etymological oddities, because we know its origins. It comes from the Middle French verb "recorder," which meant to relate, repeat or recall, which in turn comes from the Latin recordārī.

However, the recorder I am referring to is not the device used to record but the "straight flute," a musical instrument. Despite its very recognizable origins, no one knows why in English, the "straight flute"—flauto dolce, in Italian, flûte à bec in French, and blockflöte in German—is called a "recorder." It certainly doesn't record anything.

Historical sources have been confused since its first attestations. The earliest appearance of the word is from 1388, in a list (in Latin) of musical instruments owned by the future King Henry IV. There, it's documented as "i. fistula nomine Recordour" ("a pipe called Recordour"). This makes it look like a proper noun, with the initial character capitalized. In 15th-century England, the word "recordour," with a lowercase initial, meant a chief legal officer of a city.

There are some theories. The sound of the recorder was compared with that produced by birds' songs, which are repetitive and, therefore, would develop a "recording" loop—but that feels far-fetched.

In the past, I have worked on the etymologies of the words "ocarina" and "gemshorn" , and my focus is now on "recorder." The reconstruction of the origin stories of these "proper words" could tell us a lot about our ancestors, their mindsets, and their cognitive strategies in naming what was surrounding them.

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Why I Write Movies

A few words on screenwriting from Robert Towne, author of Chinatown and Shampoo , script doctor on Bonnie & Clyde and The Godfather .

Several years ago my five-year-old daughter bounced into my study and found me hunched and miserable over my typewriter, feeling like a housewife who couldn’t get her stove to boil water. Kate wanted to know why I wouldn’t play with her. “Because I’m stuck.” She wanted to know why I was stuck. “Because it’s hard.” She thought about this for a minute and said, “Then why do it, Dad? Why don’t you cease this activity and become an artist?”

By artist she meant painter, of course, but despite its surprising diction, her question was not an unfamiliar one. It was, in fact, a question I’d heard posed all my life, and not just to me. Writers in every generation since screenplays went off the cuff of the director and onto paper have been asked to respond to it. Generally they have done so with wit, shame, and cynicism—the wisdom of wags and writers from Anita Loos and Ben Hecht to Fitzgerald and Parker has been distilled and codified into Woody Allen’s phrase about screenwriting: Take the money and run. Write the great American novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, live well, and don’t take screenwriting too seriously. Like parking-lot attendants and waiters in Los Angeles, do it on the way to being an actor or a grown-up or an artist, do it as a means to an end—but never as an end in itself. This is a continuing attitude about screenwriting. As Vincent Canby observed not long ago, “I can’t imagine why any person who took himself seriously as an artist would pursue it for more than five minutes.”

.css-f6drgc:before{margin:-0.99rem auto 0 -1.33rem;left:50%;width:2.1875rem;border:0.3125rem solid #FF3A30;height:2.1875rem;content:'';display:block;position:absolute;border-radius:100%;} .css-bugj92{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-roboto,Lausanne-local,Arial,sans-serif;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-bugj92{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-bugj92{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-bugj92 em,.css-bugj92 i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-bugj92 b,.css-bugj92 strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-bugj92:before{content:'＂';display:block;padding:0.3125rem 0.875rem 0 0;font-size:3.5rem;line-height:0.8;font-style:italic;font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-styleitalic-roboto,Lausanne-styleitalic-local,Arial,sans-serif;} I think movies best communicate whatever I have to say and show; or to put it another way, when what you want to show is what you have to say, you are pretty much stuck with movies as a way of saying it.

There is only one other thing I can recall being treated with anything like the amusement and contempt and condescension reserved for screenwriters—and that is the city of Los Angeles itself. Since I can remember, it’s been called crass, cultish, “the nowhere city,” full of vegetation and people and architecture from any- and everywhere else on earth. Some called it “southern cafeteria” because of the proliferation of eating establishments where the old and the odd and the ill would sit tray-by-tray, spooning their Waldorf salads and dreaming about the future they had come to seek. No one, I suppose, embodied the spirit of contempt and frustration and loathing about Los Angeles more dramatically than Nathanael West. In him, love and hate for Los Angeles collided and finally died in a head-on traffic accident at Sunset and Sepulveda—or so I had been brought up to believe. (Actually, West died on the highway in El Centro, just north of Tijuana, purportedly in a hurry to make it to L.A. in time for his buddy Scott Fitzgerald’s funeral.) Whether it’s Nathanael West or David Susskind or Woody Allen, the varying skills of the observer notwithstanding, the observation is likely to be the same: The only good thing about Los Angeles is that you can turn right on red (but not always, and particularly not at Sunset and Sepulveda).

This confluence of opinion about Los Angeles and screenwriting—bogus representations of life and literature, respectively—is something I remember vividly about growing up in that city. The Santa Anas brought hot air from the desert, ocean breezes brought cold air from the Pacific, and the prevailing wind from the east brought the same message over and over: I lived in a world that was, if possible, phonier than the movies it produced.

Even as a child—especially as a child—this name-calling bothered me. I knew that the fishermen I would watch going out to sea in San Pedro were not phony. Their beards would scratch your face, there was red wine on their breath, and they made you feel safe when they lifted you off the boat and onto the docks before they cast off into the open sea. They were very real.

The only good thing about Los Angeles is that you can turn right on red (but not always, and particularly not at Sunset and Sepulveda).

At the same time, certain things in the movies I watched while growing up began to strike me as increasingly unreal. For instance: I’d never been to New York, but I found it unlikely that you could pull up in front of the Waldorf-Astoria at any hour of the day or night and find a parking space; I would get faintly indignant that no one waited for change when they paid a check in a restaurant; I found it hard to swallow that every married couple slept in twin beds, that the husband always wore pajamas and the wife always woke up without her lipstick smeared; I knew it was a flat-out lie when the movie was set in Los Angeles and the men wore hats and overcoats. This misrepresentation of native dress was a serious violation of reality. It rankled me the way James Fenimore Cooper’s Indians rankled Mark Twain—when six of them jump out of a sapling barely six feet tall and somehow miss a barge 150 feet long passing beneath them at less than one mile an hour. Moreover, these hats in L.A. weren’t merely noted on the printed page; they were being shown on a huge screen, the offending item much larger than life. I’m sure I figured somewhere back then that sooner or later, when I grew up, I would try to do it differently. I’d make it “real.” Particularly because I grew up in a place outsiders claimed was unreal, and because I looked at representations of that world onscreen that I thought were unreal, I suppose I saw movies as a way of redressing a wrong. I would use one illusion—movies—in order to make another illusion—Los Angeles—real.

But then why not address and redress these views of Los Angeles through novels and plays? Why choose screenwriting, so often spoken of as a collaborative business? In this context, collaboration is akin to what happened in occupied France, and business means that you sell whatever writing skills you have for whatever money you can get.

I guess it’s like I said to my daughter, I really am stuck....There are no novels or plays I’m itching to write and there never have been. I love movies. I think movies best communicate whatever I have to say and show; or to put it another way, when what you want to show is what you have to say, you are pretty much stuck with movies as a way of saying it.

Consider this: In Lawrence of Arabia , Lawrence, in flowing white robes, sits on a truck in the middle of the desert giving a press conference. He’s ten feet tall on the screen and overwhelmingly immaculate. He faces a grimy-looking reporter who scratches his beard and asks snidely, “Just what is it, Colonel Lawrence, that attracts you to the desert?” Lawrence glances distastefully at the dirty reporter and offers a three-word reply: “Because it’s clean.” It is not the text but the context that gives this reply its full force. Those three words in a novel or even on the stage would be mildly amusing at best, but on the screen the effect is as overwhelming as the figure of Lawrence and the desert looming behind him. Those three words are the scene. There is no speech, long or short, about Lawrence’s need to seek remote places of the earth in order to avoid the corruption inevitably found in its more populated areas. Only a clean man, a dirty reporter, a big desert, and three little words—“Because it’s clean.”

It’s a movie. What else do you need?

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.4375rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.5625rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}} Movies

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