Etymologically
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unbiased

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Etymology

It is formed from English un- + biased.[1][2][3][4] Biased is the past-participle adjective of the verb bias,[4] whose noun is from French biais (“a slant, slope”), a French word of unknown origin.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a bowl in the game of bowls, having no bias: 1607, in G. Wilkins's The Miseries of Inforst Mariage.[1] Etymonline dates the bowling use to about 1600.[4]

Semantic evolution

As with biased, the word passed from the weighted bowl that runs off a straight course to the human mind.[4] The figurative sense, free from undue influence or prejudice, is recorded from 1654 of judgement and feelings, from 1668 of actions and opinions, and of persons by 1686;[1] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.[4] A rare use as an adverb, meaning impartially, appears in Fanny Burney (1796).[1] In statistics, unbiased describes a sample free of factors that distort it, or an estimator whose expected value equals the quantity being estimated.[5][6] The spelling unbiassed is chiefly British.[3][5][2]

Timeline

  • 1607 – of bowls, having no bias.[1][6]
  • 1654 – of the mind or judgement, impartial.[1]
  • 1668 – of actions and opinions.[1]
  • 1686 – of persons.[1]
  • 1796 – as an adverb, impartially (rare).[1]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Free from bias or prejudice; fair and impartial: an unbiased account of the dispute.[5][6][2]
  2. (statistics) Of a sample, not distorted by factors that affect its distribution; of an estimator, having an expected value equal to the quantity it estimates.[5][6]
  3. Of a bowl in bowls, having no bias.[1][4]

Word family

  • unbiasedly
  • unbiasedness

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster