random

 
Pronunciation: /ˈrandəm/

adjective

  • 1made, done, or happening without method or conscious decision: apparently random violence
  • Statistics governed by or involving equal chances for each item: a random sample of 100 households
  • (of masonry) with stones of irregular size and shape.
  • 2 informal odd, unusual, or unexpected: the class was hard but he was so random that it was always fun

Phrases

at random

without method or conscious decision: he opened the book at random

Derivatives

randomly

adverb

randomness

noun

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'impetuous headlong rush'): from Old French randon 'great speed', from randir 'gallop', from a Germanic root shared by rand2

Word Trends

In the 1990s teenagers called everything and everyone sad; in the early 2000s they used random. Although the slang sense of random arose in the 1970s in US computing circles, it didn’t take off in British English until the 21st century. As with sad, the change in meaning is quite small, with the biggest difference being the context and way that the word is used. Random can be rather disparaging ( Mum, you are so random), but it is often used in a positive way, or at least with the implication that the subject, though undeniably odd, is also amusing and entertaining: I find it impossible to not laugh at such a random guy the park was so random that I’m rather glad I stuck around