Forms: 4 -cioun, 5 -tyowne, 4–7 -cion, etc. [a. F. examination, ad. L. exāminātiōn-em, n. of action f. exāmināre: see EXAMINE v.] The action of examining; the state of being examined.
† 1. A testing, trial, proof, assay. Also fig. Obs. exc. as a contextual use of 3.
c. 1510. More, Picus, Wks. 32. In straite balance … If thou shouldest our sinne ponder … Who able were to beare thy punishement … The whole engine of all this worlde … With suche examinacion might not stande.
1552. Latimer, Serm. St. Stephen’s Day, Wks. (Parker Soc.), II. 104. Calamities … be but examinations and proofs to provoke us to call upon God.
[1799. G. Smith, Laborat., I. 73. The examination, or assay, of the purity of gold or silver.]
2. a. The action of testing or judging by a standard or rule. Now only with some notion of 3 or 6. Cf. EXAMINE v. 2 a. Cf. Self-examination.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Melib., 301. For as moche as the Examinacioun is necessarie, let us byginne at the Surgiens.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. ii. 40. That all examynatyowne Off thai persownys propyrly The kyrk suld hawe in gret party.
c. 1460. trans. T. à Kempis, 139. Grace … in euery understondinge submitteþ himself … to goddis examynacion.
1627. H. Mason (title), The Tribunal of Conscience, or a Treatise of Examination; shewing … how a Christian should examine his Conscience.
1885. Catholic Dict., Examination of Conscience … should be made at least every evening.
† b. Judicial inquiry into the guilt or innocence of an accused person. Obs. Cf. 6.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 165. Sone þe day of examinacioun was sette.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. ccx. 224. The bysshop he commytted to the examynacion & correccion of the clergy.
1526–34. Tindale, Acts xxv. 26. I have brought him vnto you … that after examinacion had, I myght have sumwhat to wryte.
1557. Order of Hospitalls, D j. For the Examination of Single Women being gotten with Child.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. v. § 3. After a particular examination of Jeremiah … they acquit him. Ibid. (1685), Orig. Brit., v. 304. They anointed Kings … and not long after they without Examination took them off.
3. The action of investigating the nature, qualities, or condition of any object by inspection or experiment; minute inspection, scrutiny. Post-mortem examination: = AUTOPSY 2.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 99. The examination of passengers at … the frontier Townes of the Princes of Italie.
1819. J. G. Children, Chem. Anal., Introd. 10. The examination of a substance containing few elements.
1836. Act 6–7 Will. IV., c. 89. It shall be lawful for the Coroner … to direct the performance of a post-mortem Examination.
1863. Royal Charter § 42, in Lond. Univ. Calendar, 35. Which accounts shall be subject to such examination and audit as the said Commissioners may direct.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 727. The colour of the stroke made upon the touchstone by the metal under examination.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Physical Examination, the investigation of disease by means of the senses, as when the cardiac respiratory sounds and movements are examined with the ear, or by means of instruments devised to render them more conspicuous.
1888. E. Eggleston, Graysons, xxiv. Bob made what a surgeon would call a ‘digital examination’ of the dungeon door.
4. The action or process of searching or inquiring into (facts, opinions, statements, etc.); investigation, scrutiny.
1538. Starkey, England, I. iii. 74. That was agred at the begynnyng for the bettur examynatyon of every thyng.
c. 1626. Wotton, Lett., in Reliq. Wotton. (1672), 549. After the examination of circumstances, there is a liberty of judgment.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1737), V. vii. 321. Surely nothing that is self-evident, can be the proper subject of examination, or tryal.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, I. i. 13. To look, with cool examination, upon the disappointments he sometimes threw in her way.
1864. J. H. Newman, Apologia, 129. In that very agreement of the two forms of faith, close as it might seem, would really be found on examination, the elements and principles of an essential discordance.
1878. C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, i. 4. Such an account now claims our examination.
5. The process of testing, by questions oral or written, the knowledge or ability of pupils, or of candidates for office, degrees, etc. For Honour, Local, Middle-Class, Pass, Senate-House Examinations, see those words.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., v. 48. Which worke of continuall examination, is a notable quickner and nourisher of all good learning. Ibid., xxviii. 282. That euery yeare … there be a solemne examination by the Gouernours of the schoole.
1694. Gibson, in Ellis, Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 235. We met him … just as he was going for Pauls to [sic: ? read to Pauls for] examinations.
1783. Lett. Radcliffe & James (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 232. To day … I went through part of my examination for Orders.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xiv. A dreadful uncle … volunteered examinations of him in the holidays on abstruse points.
1866. Lond. Univ. Calendar, 40. The Examination shall be conducted by means of Printed Papers.
6. Formal interrogation, esp. of a witness, or an accused person. Examination-in-chief, that made by the party calling the witness. See CROSS-, RE-EXAMINATION. † Also, Interrogation under torture.
The judicial interrogation of accused persons has no place in the criminal process of the common law, but by various statutes from 16th c. justices of the peace were directed to ‘take the examination’ of prisoners before sending them for trial. This expression has survived, though the practice that it denotes no longer exists; hence the preliminary investigation before justices of the peace or police-magistrates is still called the examination of the prisoner, so that the word in this connection has reverted to the obsolete sense 2 b.
a. 1555. Latimer, in Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 383/2. I was once … in Examination before five or six Bishops…; every week thrice I came to Examinations.
1592. Greene, Art Conny-catch., III. 5. What hee spake of either came to him by examinations, or by riding in the circuits.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, II. iv. 274. The Tormentors examined him … for several hours they ceased not their Examinations.
1838. Penny Cycl., X. 103/1 s.v. Evidence, The cross-examination of a witness … is founded upon what the witness has stated in his examination in chief.
1841. Macaulay, W. Hastings, Ess. 1854, II. 651/2. There remained examinations and cross-examinations.
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 234/2. The party is brought before a magistrate for examination.
b. The statements or depositions made by a witness or accused person when examined; the record of such statements. To take the examination of: to interrogate and note down the answers.
1533. Frith’s Answ. More, Title-p., Vnto which boke are added … the articles of his examinacion before the bishoppes.
1554. Acts 1–2 Ph. & Mary, c. 13 § 4. The said justices … before any bailment or mainprise, shall take the examination of the said prisoner.
1591. J. Hortop, Trav., in Arb., Garner, V. 329. The Earl of Sussex … commanded his Secretary to take my name and examination.
1600. Essex Rebell. Exam., in Shaks. C. Praise, 35. The Examination of Sr Gelly merick Knyght taken the xvijth of Februarij, 1600.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 10. The clerke reade the examinacions taken in Courte.
1826. Act 7 Geo. IV., c. 64 § 3. Every Justice of the Peace before whom any Person shall be taken … shall take the Examination of the Person charged.
1848. Act 11–12 Vict., c. 42 § 19, marg. Place where Examination taken, not an open Court.
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 234/2. The examinations of the witnesses at the precognition … never can be used … against the witnesses.
7. attrib. and Comb., as examination fever, questions, statute, system, etc.; examination-paper, (a) paper specially prepared for use in examinations; (b) a written or printed series of questions, etc., to be answered by the examinee; (c) a written series of answers by an examinee; examination-schools, in Oxford parlance: (a) the several branches of the University curriculum in which a formal examination is instituted; (b) the building in which University examinations are held.
1884. Crichton-Browne, in Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Sept., 11/1. The *‘examination fever,’ as it has been called, that leaves such unpleasant sequelæ behind it … is now endemic in the metropolis.
1837. (title) *Examination Papers for the use of Theological Students.
1838. (title) *Examination Questions and Answers, from ‘Butler’s Analogy.’
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., vi. 244. If he [a professor] wishes for any auditors at all, he must make himself subservient to the *examination schools.
1886. Oxf. Univ. Calendar, 55. Full information … will be found … in the *Examination Statutes.
Mod. (Oxford) The Examination-schools are beyond University College.
Hence Examinational a., of or pertaining to examination or examinations; based upon (academical, etc.) examinations. Examinationism, the habit of relying upon or the practice of employing examinations as the test of fitness, knowledge, etc. Examinationist, one who upholds the system of examinations.
1826. Bentham, in Westm. Rev., VI. 492. Tests preferred by Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, presumably the financial … by their humble servant, the examinational.
1859. Sat. Rev., 12 Feb., 178/2. The establishment of what … we may call an examinational franchise.
1884. H. M. Jones, Hints on Senses, 148. For future success in life the test of early examinational proficiency is a most fallacious one.
1884. Lond. Jrnl. Sc., XXI. 240. A reaction against that miserable examinationism which earns for us the title of the ‘Chinese of Europe.’
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 June, 3/1. Much emphasis is laid by the theoretical examinationists on the supposed difficulty that the public have in discriminating between a trained and an untrained nurse.
