statisticsn.
/stəˈtɪstɪks/, U.S. /stəˈtɪstɪks/ 1. With singular agreement.† a. The branch of political science concerned with the collection, classification, and discussion of (esp. numerical) facts bearing on the condition of a state or community. Obsolete except as in sense 1b.The word gained currency in English from its use by Sinclair (quot. 1798), who has sometimes been credited with coining the term. In later use passing into sense 1b (cf. quot. 1881). For a detailed discussion of the early semantic development see G. U. Yule Introd. Theory of Statistics (1911) Introd.
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the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > statistics > study of
statistics1770
stats1970
society > authority > rule or government > politics > [noun] > political science > branches of political science
political arithmetic1683
statistics1770
civics1885
political sociology1905
political anthropology1915
the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > statistics > study of > as a branch of political science
statistics1770
statistic1794
1770 W. Hooper tr. J. F. von Bielfeld Elements Universal Educ. III. xiii. 269 The science, that is called statistics [Fr. la science qu'on nomme Statistique], teaches us what is the political arrangement of all the modern states of the known world.
1787 E. A. W. von Zimmermann Polit. Surv. Europe Pref. 2 It is about forty years ago that that branch of political knowledge, which has for its object the actual and relative power of the several modern states, the power arising from their natural advantages,..and the wisdom of their governments, has been formed, chiefly by German writers, into a separate science... This science, distinguished by the new-coined name of Statistics, is become a favourite study in Germany.
1797 Oracle & Public Advertiser 6 Nov. 3/4 Thou, young heroes, for whom war, politics, statistics, and philosophy dispute the prize.
1798 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XX. App. p. xiii In 1786, I found, that in Germany they were engaged in a species of political inquiry, to which they had given the name of Statistics; and..as I thought that a new word might attract more public attention, I resolved on adopting it.
1820 W. Jacob (title) A view of the agriculture, manufacture, statistics and state of society of Germany, and parts of Holland and France.
1838 London & Westm. Rev. 29 70 [A review of Transaction of the Statistical Society of London (1837), vol. 1, part 1.] Statistics is not a science... It is merely a form of knowledge—a mode of arranging and stating facts which belong to various sciences.
1865 Trans. Illinois State Agric. Soc. 1861–4 5 14 The science of statistics is a branch of what may be termed social science... Of this social science statistics is the real basis. Its object is to ascertain both the facts and the laws of social movement.
1873 D. C. Heron Princ. Jurispr. i. 8 Statistics is the science of social facts expressed in numerical terms. It is most intimately allied to the three Social Sciences.
1881 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 44 38 ‘Statistics’ is a term that is to be interpreted in two senses. It is a method of scientific inquiry (and as such applicable to all sciences), and it is also a science dealing with the social life of man.
b. The systematic collection and arrangement of numerical facts or data of any kind; (also) the branch of science or mathematics concerned with the analysis and interpretation of numerical data and appropriate ways of gathering such data. Cf. statistic n. 1.
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the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > statistics > collecting or using
statisticizing1821
statistics1839
1839 T. Carlyle Chartism ii. 9 Statistics is a science which ought to be honourable, the basis of many most important sciences.
1846 Times 18 Aug. 6/3 A student of statistics, i.e. a man who computes and analyses everything that relates to the visible state or condition of man.
1895 R. Mayo-Smith Statist. & Sociol. 9 Statistics consists in the observation of phenomena which can be counted or expressed in figures.
1902 Biometrika 1 305 The theory of statistics can be applied to test the significance or non-significance of differences in statistical constants.
1925 Amer. Mercury July 299/1 Between 95 and 98 per cent of those who were killed have been shown by statistics to have been non-professed Christians.
1948 A. C. Kinsey et al. Sexual Behavior Human Male iii. 88 It is customary in statistics to measure the accuracy of a calculated mean by computing its ‘standard deviation’.
1960 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 20 540 The logical structure necessary to make historical reconstructions from the surviving debris of past economic life essentially involves ideas of history, economics and statistics.
1991 J. L. Casti Searching for Certainty (1992) i. 50 As used in probability and statistics, unrelated usually means that the quantities are statistically independent—i.e., knowledge of one gives no information whatsoever about what the other is doing.
2004 Focus Feb. 5/3 The ‘normal’ laws of statistics..simply don't work when applied to off-the-scale events like mammoth Sun storms.
2. With modifying word denoting a particular field or branch of this subject.vital statistics: see vital adj. 4d.
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the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > statistics > study of > within specific field
statistics1797
biostatics1851
biostatistics1865
statistical mechanics1885
Bose–Einstein statistics1928
Bose statistics1931
stylometry1945
cliometrics1960
stylometric1968
bibliometrics1969
macrolinguistics1972
1797 Analyt. Rev. Apr. 433 In order to know a state, it ought to be considered under the following heads: 1. It's extent and exact measurements, which he [sc. F. J. Durand] terms mathematical statistics. 2. It's situation, both positive and relative, which he calls topographical statistics. 3. It's climate, or physical statistics [etc.].
1829 F. B. Hawkins Elem. Med. Statistics 2 A combination of these scattered features forms Medical Statistics... We may perhaps define it, in a few words, to be the application of numbers to illustrate the natural history of man in health and disease.
1838 London & Westm. Rev. 29 70 Statistics..was considered, by the Statistical Section of the British Association.., as admitting division into four great classes:—1. Economical Statistics. 2. Political Statistics. 3. Medical Statistics. 4. Moral and Intellectual Statistics.
1899 Amer. Naturalist 33 522 Little is said about multimodal curves, which are frequent in biological statistics.
1927 tr. N. I. Bukharin Econ. Theory Leisure Class 22 The Historical School..makes this science [sc. political economy] identical with economic history and economic statistics, with idiography par excellence.
1966 S. Beer Decision & Control ix. 176 This thoroughly basic situation is so important in operational research as applied to dynamic systems that a whole branch of mathematical statistics, known as queue theory, has been developed round it.
2005 P. Olofsson Probability, Statistics, & Stochastic Processes vi. 373 The field of Bayesian statistics has a starting point that differs from those of the methods we have encountered so far.
3. With plural agreement.
a. Such facts or data collected and classified or analysed.In use equivalent to the plural of statistic n. 3a.
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the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > statistics
statistics1800
stat1952
stats1962
numbers1964
1800 J. Currie Burns' Wks. I. 356 In fact Scotland has increased in the number of its inhabitants in the last forty years, as the statistics of Sir John Sinclair clearly prove.
1816 W. Scott Paul's Lett. to Kinsfolk i. 15 These statistics, my dear Margaret, rather fall in the Laird's province than yours.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 292 There is great virtue in figures, dull as they are to all but the few who love statistics for the sake of what they indicate.
1849 G. White (title) Statistics of the State of Georgia: including an account of its natural, civil, and ecclesiastical history.
1859 Westm. Rev. Oct. 593 The statistics of suicide are striking.
1881 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 44 44 We all know what we mean by ‘statistics of pig iron’, ‘statistics of coffee’, ‘population statistics’, or ‘revenue statistics’. We mean actual concrete figures relating to a particular set of phenomena.
1910 Pop. Mech. Dec. 151/1 Recent statistics giving the output of the Kimberley mines and river diggings for the past three years.
1943 B. B. Nixon Henry W. Grady i. 20 An array of statistics on the production, consumption, and export of cotton.
1957 Econ. Geogr. 33 339/1 No statistics are available for the number of bed-nights passed at different resorts in Corsica.
2009 Private Eye 1 May 10/2 As for reliability, latest statistics show 90.7 percent of trains arrive on time.
b. colloquial (euphemistic). A woman's breasts, hips, or waist; a woman's figure. Cf. vital adj. 4d(b), vital statistics n. at vital adj. and n. Compounds.
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the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > [noun] > female
curve1849
contour1886
rondeurs1923
statistics1958
1958 Times 24 Feb. 11/3 It is a pretty thought to contemplate all those statistics hipping and swaying and shimmering.
1958 Times 13 Nov. 9/4 To-day, except for the slightly high waist-lines and one or two modified trapezes, feminine statistics were where nature intended them to be.
1960 Punch 3 Aug. 148/2 An enticing girl with yellow hair and sound statistics.
1977 Lancet 15 Jan. 130/1 The ‘cardiac neurosis’ has often been described anecdotally..but statistics are scarce.
1978 O. White Silent Reach vi. 61 Next time you get into position, try squeezing her statistics.
4. Physics. With plural or singular agreement. The description of the properties or behaviour of a collection of many atoms, molecules, etc., based on the application of probability theory, esp. as regards the distribution of energy among them; spec. = quantum statistics n. at quantum n. and adj. Compounds 2. Bose–Einstein, Fermi–Dirac, Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics: see the first element.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > [noun] > statistics of energy distribution
statistics1882
quantum statistics1921
Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics1948
1873 J. C. Maxwell in Nature 25 Sept. 440/1 The modern atomists have therefore adopted a method which is I believe new in the department of mathematical physics, though it has long been in use in the Section of Statistics.]
1882 J. B. Stallo Concepts Mod. Physics viii. 124 To account for the laws of Boyle and Charles resort is had to the calculus of probabilities, or, as Maxwell terms it, the method of statistics.
1900 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 49 114 In the case of a gas, of which the statistics are assumed to be regular, the potential energy remains approximately constant.
1909 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 83 86 The general thesis of which a development is here attempted is thus the molecular statistics of distributions of energy.
1939 J. R. Oppenheimer & G. M. Volkoff in Physical Rev. 55 377/1 The matter is taken to consist of particles of rest mass υ0 obeying Fermi statistics, and their thermal energy and all forces between them are neglected.
1947 P. A. M. Dirac Princ. Quantum Mech. (ed. 3) ix. 210 The new statistics was first studied by Bose, so we shall call particles for which only symmetrical states occur in nature bosons.
1979 Sci. Amer. Feb. 89/1 The fermions and the bosons..are distinguished by the intrinsic angular momentum, or spin, of the particles, and by their statistics, or behavior in groups.
2004 A. Watson Quantum Quark iii. 56 Fermi–Dirac statistics are the basis of our understanding of electrical conduction in metals, which is due to a ‘gas’ of effectively free electrons floating in the metal.
Compounds
General attributive and objective.
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1854 Morning Post 8 Mar. 3/5 C. M. Ormsby, Statistics-Office, I.E.C.
1876 Internat. Exhib. 1876 Official Catal. (U.S. Centennial Comm.) I. 261/2 Chili, Government of, Statistics Bureau, Valparaiso.
1945 Jrnl. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 40 606/1 Neville, Sherril West, Research and Statistics Analyst.
1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 Aug. d8 The study..was prepared by..a statistics professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
2000 Scout Rep. Arch. (Electronic text) 21 Jan. In addition to covering the process of creating and maintaining a personal Website, the guide addresses topics such as online diaries, Webcams, statistics-keeping, and Webrings.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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