English 'triage' comes from French 'trier' (to sort, to sift), from PIE *terh₁- (to rub, to thresh) — the metaphor of sorting grain from chaff applied to mass casualty medicine, the same root that gives English 'try,' 'trial,' and 'attrition.'
The assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses in order to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.
From French 'triage' (sorting, selection), from 'trier' (to sort, to sift, to pick out), from Old French 'trier,' possibly from Vulgar Latin *tritāre or from a Gallo-Roman root related to Latin 'terere' (to rub, to thresh, to separate grain), from PIE *terh₁- (to rub, to turn, to bore). The sorting of grain from chaff is the metaphor at the root of triage: separating those who can survive from those who cannot, as one separates wheat from waste. The medical use was established during World War I, built on the Napoleonic system developed by Larrey (who also invented
The English word 'try' is the same word as 'triage,' both from Old French 'trier' (to sort, to sift). To 'try' something was originally to sort it out, to test and separate — the same act as triage. A trial is a sorting. Being tried in court is being sorted. The grim medical act of triage and the everyday act of trying something new share a common ancestor in the threshing floor