the problem with questions…

I’m inlcined to think that most if not all of the difficulties that have in the past puzzled and deceived philosophers and blocked the way to knowledge are entirely of our own making. We have first raised a dust, and then we complain that we can’t see.

George Berkley_Principles of Human Knowledge

Formal Movements

assess

1423, "to fix the amount (of a tax, fine, etc.)," from Anglo-Fr. assesser,
from M.L. assessareassidere "to sit beside"
(and thus to assist in the office of a judge), from ad- "to" + sedere
"to sit." One of the judge's assistant's jobs was to fix the amount of
a fine or tax. Meaning "to estimate the value of property for the
purpose of taxing it" is from 1809; transf. sense of "to judge the
value of a person, idea, etc." is from 1934.

assess. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assess

(accessed: July 07, 2008).

J.D.F.