Word of the Week: September 11, 2000
Random Running Aim

"Stochastic" is a useful word which used to mean "conjectural" or "guessed" but now more frequently means "random." It is from the Greek stochazesthai "to aim, guess." You just have to wonder how a word meaning "to aim" or "to guess" could transform into one meaning "random." Did people just generally have really bad random aim? It probably has something to do with Bernouilli, who, in 1713, called the art of measuring probabilities as precisely as possible stochastike. I suppose the idea must have been that you aim at precision, but what you are measuring is chance, which is "random." From there, it seems to have been adopted into English in the beginning of the 20th century. But "random" itself has a quirky etymology. It is from French randir "to gallop, run fast." The idea is that if you run really fast, you cannot control your movements as well, and so you wind up being random. So, what are the chances that stochastic and random would come to mean the same thing? Anyone want to take a running shot at it?

Words of the Week are written by Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.