Etymologically
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bias

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 12:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈbaɪ.əs/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French biais (“a slant, slope; sideways”),[2][3][4] from Old Provençal biais, of uncertain origin,[2][3] perhaps irregularly from Greek ἐπικάρσιος (epikársios, “oblique, athwart”),[5][6][7] which, according to Bloch and Wartburg, may have reached Provençal through the Greek colonies of southern France.[2] The Greek is from epi, upon, and karsios, oblique, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An oblique or diagonal line: 1530, in Palsgrave.[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

In the game of bowls it was the weighting of a bowl on one side so that it curves (1560s, 1570 in the OED);[3][8] from this came the figurative one-sided tendency of the mind (1570s, 1589 in the OED), at first especially in law, undue propensity or prejudice.[3][8] The adjective, slanting, is from 1551,[8] and in dressmaking, cut diagonally across the weave (on the bias), from 1815.[8] The verb is from the 1610s literally and the 1620s figuratively.[3] In electronics and statistics it has later technical senses.[9][10]

Timeline

  • 1530 – an oblique line.[2][8]
  • 1551 – slanting (adjective).[8]
  • 1570 – in bowls.[8]
  • 1589 – a one-sided tendency.[8]
  • 1610s – the verb.[3]
  • 1815 – cut on the bias.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A tendency to favour one side unfairly; partiality.
  2. A line running diagonally across the weave of a fabric.
  3. (statistics) A systematic distortion of a result.
  4. The tendency of a bowl to curve, from its weighting.
  5. (electronics) A steady voltage applied to a device to control its operation.

Verb

  1. To influence unfairly; to prejudice.

Word family

  • biasness
  • unbiased
  • bias tape
  • biased
  • prejudice

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins