Etymologically
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random

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:08. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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