- average (n.)
- late 15c., "financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit," from O.Fr. avarie "damage to ship," from It. avaria, a word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade. Sometimes traced to Arabic 'arwariya "damaged merchandise," but this might as easily be a borrowing of the word from the Franks. OED suggests It. avere, O.Fr. aveir "property, goods," from L. habere "to have." 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 adjective is first recorded 1770; the verb is from 1769. The mathematical extension is from 1755.