average
Meanings
- Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.
- The arithmetic mean.
- A financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
- Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense.
- Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods.
- An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.
- Constituting or relating to the average.
- Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.
- Typical.
- Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.
- To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean.
- Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.
- To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.
- To be, generally or on average.
- The feudal service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Arabic عَوَار (ʕawār) Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy) Proto-Afroasiatic *-t Proto-Semitic *-at- Arabic ـَة (-a) Arabic ـِيَّة (-iyya) Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya)bor.? Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰéh₁yeti Proto-Italic *haβēō Latin habeō Old Italian avére Old Italian -ìa ? Old Italian avariabor. Old French avarie Middle French avarie Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin -āticus Latin -āticum Old French -agebor. Middle English -age English -age English average Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage.