Etymologically
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statistic

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 13:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /stəˈtɪs.tɪk/[1]

Etymology

The OED, which revised the entry in 2012, has it formed from English statist + -ic, modelled on French statistique (“study of a state, statecraft”) (1768) and on German Statistik (1744 or earlier) with its adjective statistisch (1657), which goes back to New Latin statisticus (“of or relating to the state, statists or statecraft”).[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it from the German adjective and noun.[3][4] The Latin adjective is based on status (“state”), the source of state.[5][6] Merriam-Webster treats the noun as the singular of statistics,[7] and Etymonline and Wiktionary likewise refer it to that word.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, relating to statistics or the study of a state: 1770, in W. Hooper's translation of J. F. von Bielfeld.[2] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins finds it first in the phrase statistic science in the late 18th century.[9]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED, the German and Latin words moved from "relating to the state or statecraft" to the study of data about a state, and then to the analysis of such data in numbers.[2] Ayto credits the German political scientist Aschenwall with bringing the German adjective into general use in this sense, and says it had broadened to its modern general sense by the 1830s.[5] In English the noun first meant the subject itself, the same as statistics (1794), a use now rare.[2][3] From 1817 a statistic was a single statistical fact or figure,[2] a sense the 1989 OED and Merriam-Webster dated from 1880,[10][7] and Etymonline from 1852.[8] From 1917 it was also used of a person treated as a mere figure, especially a casualty,[2] a use Etymonline dates from 1939.[8] The technical sense in statistics, a numerical characteristic of a sample, is first recorded in 1922, in R. A. Fisher.[2][10]

Timeline

  • 1770 – adjective, relating to statistics.[2]
  • 1794 – noun, the subject of statistics.[2]
  • 1804 – a statistician (obsolete after 1898).[2]
  • 1817 – a statistical fact or figure.[2]
  • 1917 – a person regarded as a mere figure.[2]
  • 1922 – a numerical characteristic of a sample, in R. A. Fisher.[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A single number or fact in a collection of statistics: One alarming statistic stood out in the report.[11][7][2]
  2. (statistics) A quantity, such as the mean or standard deviation, calculated from a sample and used to estimate a value for the whole population.[11][7][12][2]
  3. A person regarded only as a figure in a count, especially of deaths or injuries.[2][8]
  4. (rare) The subject of statistics.[2][3]

Adjective

  1. (rare) Statistical.[2][3]

Word family

  • unstatistic
  • statistician

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins