Hi this Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 84. The word origin today is average.
Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. Today the word average simply refers to
adding up several numbers and then dividing the total by the number of
things added together. Yeah. So it's pretty simple.
Let's continue. The origin of the word average comes out of the Middle Ages and
was similar to the idea of what we would call insurance or at least call insurance
today, especially insurance on shipped goods. Back in the Middle Ages shipping
was the main way of transporting goods. Really the only way, from one country to
another. And there was a lot of loss due to accidents, ships lost at sea from
storms, pirates etc. or who knows maybe something else moving around you know,
you don't know if any crew stole anything. In order to keep the business
of commerce and trade going, a charge above the shipping had to be made. Okay.
This charge was paid to the owners of the goods or the ship . Yeah or like
the ship or the ship captain. I guess for taking care of the goods and any loss or
damage of the goods through transport or maybe the shipping company. Different
versions of this word could be found in several languages such as ... I hope I'm
pronouncing these right. Avarie maybe in French, avaria in Italian and or averia
or averia in Spanish. Some believe it may have derived from awariya.
okay in Arabic. All of these words have to do with damage to the ships or goods
in order to keep commerce operating in a fair way. They had to make this charge in
which all parties, all groups... so if you know the producer of the goods , or if
there was a middleman for trade, the shipping company itself and maybe on the
other side whoever the merchants the goods were going to. All parties had to
average out the cost and share in any losses. Yeah. Because of only one side or
just one group is taking the losses. It won't work. Nobody will want to
participate in this. Therefore an average cost was determined for all to pay and
our modern word of average was born. So this is where average came from. So it
actually came from shipping and it really had more to do with something
like you know, like I said what we would call today kind of an insurance or
insurance policy. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I
hope it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.