arbitrary English · revision 15513

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1400|origins=la arbiter}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹi/ ''(UK)''; /ˈɑɹ.bɪˌtɹɛɹ.i/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|arbitrarie]], perhaps through [[fro|arbitraire]], from [[la|arbitrārius|t=of arbitration, not fixed by law]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(NODE 1998) from [[m|la|arbiter|t=judge, umpire]] (see [[arbiter]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Depending on one's own discretion, of an authority or government: before 1400 in Barnhart, about 1400 in Etymonline.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) The New Oxford gives the late Middle English sense, discretionary.^(NODE 1998)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Latin legal language ''arbitrarius'' was opposed to ''certus'', fixed, and came to mean uncertain.^(Etymonline) The legal sense, at the discretion of an arbitrator, is in English by the 1580s (1581).^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) Derived from mere opinion, not based on reason, and uncontrolled, despotic, as in ''arbitrary government'', are from the 1640s.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) In mathematics an arbitrary constant has no specific value.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1400 – discretionary.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1574 – at one's pleasure.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1581 – at an arbiter's discretion.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1640s – capricious; despotic.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Based on chance or personal whim rather than reason or system; [[capricious]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Using power without restraint; [[despotic]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(mathematics)'' Not representing a specific value.^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(law)'' Left to the judgement of a court rather than fixed by statute.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[arbitrarily]]

+ * [[arbitrariness]]

+ * [[nonarbitrary]]

+ * [[unarbitrary]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[arbiter]]

+ * [[arbitrable]]

+ * [[arbitrage]]

+ * [[arbitrate]]

+ * [[arbitration]]

+ * [[arbitrator]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In Herefordshire, Kent and Surrey dialect ''arbitrary'' (''arbitry'') meant independent and impatient of restraint, or hard and grasping.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}