Quetelet
/ˈkɛtəleɪ/(also Quételet) Chiefly Biology and Medicine
noun
1Attributive and in the genitive. Designating the normal (Gaussian) curve, especially as applied to sociological or biological variation. Now historical.
2Attributive and in the genitive. Designating any of several indices relating body height and weight proposed by Quételet.
- In later use: specifically designating weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres..
Origin
Early 20th century. From the name of Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quételet, Belgian statistician, sociologist, mathematician, and astronomer. In sense 1 described by Quételet in Lettres sur la théorie des probabilités appliquées aux sciénces morales et politiques 386.
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- metagabbro