From Latin 'testum' (earthen pot/crucible) — the clay cup alchemists used to assay metals gave its name to any examination or trial.
A procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something.
From Latin 'testum' (earthen pot, crucible), from 'testa' (a pot, a piece of burnt clay). A 'test' was the small clay pot used by alchemists and metallurgists to assay metals — to determine their purity by heating them. The pot that tested the metal became the act of testing anything. Key roots: testum/testa (Latin: "earthen pot, clay vessel").
Every school test is a medieval clay pot. Alchemists used small ceramic cups called 'tests' to heat metals and determine their purity — putting gold 'to the test' was literally melting it in a pot to see if it was real. The pot became the procedure, and the procedure became any examination. 'Testy' (easily irritated) also comes from this root