stochastic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek στοχαστικός (stokhastikós, “able to guess, conjecturing”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from στοχάζομαι (stokházomai, “to aim at a mark; to guess, conjecture”),^[2][3][5] from στόχος (stókhos, “aim, target; guess”).^[2][5][7] Etymonline glosses the noun also as a pillar set up for archers to shoot at.^[3] The American Heritage Dictionary puts a Greek noun meaning "diviner" between the adjective and the verb,^[8] and Merriam-Webster an assumed verbal adjective.^[9] Etymonline takes the noun as perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *stogh-, a variant of Proto-Indo-European *stegh- (“to stick, prick, sting”),^[3][8] and Klein compares the nasalized variant Proto-Indo-European *stengh-, the source of sting.^[5][9] The modern statistical sense was taken from German: Etymonline records it by 1923, in stochastical, from German Stochastik (1917),^[3] and Barnhart also derives the sense of 1934 through the German word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pertaining to conjecture: 1662, in the preface of John Owen's Animadversions on Fiat Lux.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1655–65.^[10]

Semantic evolution

For nearly three centuries the word was a learned term meaning conjectural, and the OED now marks that sense rare or obsolete.^[2][11] In the 20th century it was taken up in mathematics and statistics for what is randomly determined, following a probability distribution so that it can be analysed statistically but not predicted exactly: the OED's first quotation is from 1934, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,^[2][4] Merriam-Webster also dates the sense to 1934,^[9] and Etymonline finds it by 1923.^[3] From 1958 the composer Yannis Xenakis applied it to music whose overall sound structure is fixed while its details are left to chance.^[2]

Timeline

• 1662 – pertaining to conjecture, in John Owen.^[2][4]
• 1923 – the statistical sense, in the form stochastical.^[3]
• 1934 – randomly determined; following a probability distribution.^[2][4][9]
• 1958 – of music, with its details determined by chance, in Xenakis.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (statistics) Involving a random variable or a random process; determined by chance, so that it can be analysed with probability but not predicted exactly: a stochastic model of rainfall.^{[8][9][11][2]}
2. (statistics) Of a square matrix: having no negative entries, with each row adding up to one.^[11]
3. (rare) Relating to or based on conjecture.^[8][11][2]

Word family

• stochastically
• stochastic matrix

Related words

• sting

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins