Etymograph

English

try

Try comes from Middle English trien ‘to separate out, sift, choose, select,…’, and goes back to Anglo-Norman trier.

  1. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400trier1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trien1‘to separate out’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1531try1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English try
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […]: “the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke…”.

Lineage

  1. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400trierWiktionary, English try
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trienWiktionary, English try‘to separate out’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1531tryWiktionary, English try. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […]: “the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke…”

The story

Suggested to be derived from Late Latin *trītāre (‘to crush, grind, trample, wear out’), itself derived from Classical Latin trītus (‘rubbed, worn down, pulverised’), the past participle of terō, terere (‘to rub, wear down, trample’), though this derivation is incompatible with the Occitan form. Additionally, the shift in meaning from "rub, crush, trample" to "pick out, choose, cull" is difficult to explain. One suggestion is that the semantic shift might have originated from a Latin phrase *granum terere ("to tread the corn (in threshing)"; compare Latin trītūra (‘rubbing, chafing, friction" also "threshing’)), which has a parallel in the modern French trier le grain (‘to sort the grain’). Alternatively, perhaps derived from Vulgar Latin *trīāre, a metathetic alteration of *tīrāre (‘to tear off, pull, draw’), whence also Old French tirer (‘to draw, pull, pluck, tug, peck at, extract’), Occitan tirar (‘to take, draw, retrieve, remove, extract’).disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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Today it means

verb To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “try”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Anglo-Norman trier / try