variance

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English variaunce,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French variance^[4][2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin variantia (“difference, diversity”),^[2][6] from variāns, the present participle of variō (“to change”),^[3][6][4] the source of vary.^[2][7] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 13th century, with the senses difference, variation, inconstancy and discrepancy.^[8] The Latin noun also gave Italian varianza.^[4] Weekley notes that variance is the oldest word of its group in English.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact of changing; a tendency to vary or become different: about 1340, in Richard Rolle's Pricke of Conscience.^[4][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1300–1350, and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

From about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, variance also meant difference or discrepancy,^[4][2] and in Gower (1390) the inconstancy of a person, a sense lost in the 16th century.^[4][5] From difference it passed to disagreement and dissension by the early 15th century,^[2] and at variance, in disagreement, is recorded from the 1510s.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) gave only "discord; disagreement; dissention", quoting the Bible's "to set a man at variance against his father".^[11] In law it meant a discrepancy between two statements or documents from 1429.^[4] Modern technical senses followed: in statistics, the square of the standard deviation, in a paper by R. A. Fisher in 1918;^[4] in American law, an official exemption from a building or zoning rule, from 1925;^[4][2] and in economics, the difference between actual and expected costs or output, from 1964.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – the fact of changing, variation.^[4]
• c. 1374 – difference, discrepancy (Chaucer).^[4]
• 1390 – inconstancy of a person (obsolete by 1513).^[4]
• 1429 – in law, a discrepancy between two statements or documents.^[4]
• 1510s – at variance, in disagreement.^[2]
• 1918 – in statistics, the square of the standard deviation.^[4]
• 1925 – in US law, an exemption from a building regulation.^[4][2]
• 1964 – in economics, a difference between actual and expected figures.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fact, state or degree of varying; variation or difference: a variance of two degrees between the readings.^[12][3][13]
2. at variance: in disagreement or conflict; inconsistent: Her account was at variance with the official records.^[12][5]
3. Disagreement or dissension.^[12][5]
4. (statistics) A measure of spread equal to the mean of the squared deviations from the mean; the square of the standard deviation.^[12][13][4]
5. (US, law) Official permission to depart from a zoning or building regulation.^[13][4][2]
6. (law) A discrepancy between two statements or documents in a legal proceeding.^[13][4]
7. A difference between what is expected and what actually happens, especially between budgeted and actual costs.^[13][4]
8. (chemistry) The number of thermodynamic variables, such as temperature and pressure, needed to define a system.^[13]
9. (obsolete, 1390–1513) Inconstancy, changeableness of a person.^[4][5]

Word family

• invariance
• covariance
• analysis of variance

Related words

• vary
• variant
• variation
• variety
• various
• variable

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin