random

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈræn.dəm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English randoun (“impetuosity, speed, force”), randun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French randon (“rush, disorder, force, impetuosity”),^[3][2] from randir “to run fast, gallop”,^[3][2][4] from Frankish *rant “a running” or another Germanic source,^[3][2] related to Old High German rennen “to cause to run” and Old English rinnan, the source of run.^[3][2] The final n changed to m as in ransom and seldom.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Impetuosity, great speed or violence, as in riding or striking: about 1305 in the OED,^[5] about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The phrases o randon and at randon are from before 1300 and before 1376.^[2] In hawking and tournaments at random had special senses in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[5][6] At random meant at great speed, without care or control, from 1565,^[2] the 1560s in Etymonline, and so “carelessly, haphazardly”.^[3][6] The adjective, made by chance with no plan, is from 1655 in Barnhart,^[2] the 1650s in Etymonline,^[3] 1632 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[4] Randomize is from 1926,^[2] and random access in computer memory from 1953.^[3] In American college slang of the 1980s random came to mean “inferior, undesirable”, and a person who does not belong.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1305 – impetuosity.^[5]
• a. 1376 – at randon.^[2]
• 1565 – at random, headlong.^[2]
• 1655 – adjective, by chance.^[2]
• 1926 – randomize.^[2]
• 1953 – random access.^[3]
• 1980s – slang, odd or unwelcome.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having no particular pattern, purpose or order; haphazard.
2. (statistics) Having an equal chance of occurrence for every member of a group: a random sample.
3. (informal) Strange or unexpected; also, of a person, unknown, a stranger.

Noun

1. at random: without method or conscious choice.

Word family

• randomly
• randomness
• random-access
• randomize
• random-access memory

Related words

• run
• rant

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press