average

Word Origin & History

late 15c., "financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit," from French avarie "damage to ship," and Italian avaria; a word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade (cf. Spanish averia; other Germanic forms, Dutch avarij, German haferei, etc., also are from Romanic languages), of uncertain origin. Sometimes traced to Arabic 'arwariya "damaged merchandise," but this might as easily be a borrowing of the word from the Franks. Meaning shifted to "equal sharing of such loss by the interested parties." Transferred sense of "statement of a medial estimate" is first recorded 1735. The mathematical extension is from 1755.

Example Sentences foraverage

The men are taller than the average, and the women, relatively, taller than the men.

I guess I could do it and get away with it as well as the average.

They average about the same as they do in anything else, mostly good, I think.

He's too blamed comprehensive for the average boy of my age.

If he truly was the average age of the rest of the class there was nothing for him to be angry about.

The average courage of the two nations may perhaps have been decided.

Here was a real woman, one above the average in character and brains.

The average author doesn't realise what a funny place it is.

With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh commandment.

Three quarts of milk will yield, on an average, about a pound of cheese.

average

equated

equates

everyday

fair

fairer

fairest

formulaic

garden-variety

average

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