random

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. randon, OF. randon force, violence, rapidity, à randon, de randon, violently, suddenly, rapidly, prob. of German origin; cf. G. rand edge, border, OHG. rant shield, edge of a shield, akin to E. rand, n. See Rand, noun

1. Force; violence. obsolete

For courageously the two kings newly fought with great random and force.— Edward Hall

2. A roving motion; course without definite direction; want of direction, rule, or method; hazard; chance; — commonly used in the phrase at random, that is, without a settled point of direction; at hazard.

Counsels, when they fly At random, sometimes hit most happily.— Robert Herrick

O, many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant!— Sir Walter Scott

3. Distance to which a missile is cast; range; reach; as, the random of a rifle ball. Sir Kenelm Digby

4. Mining The direction of a rake-vein. Raymond, Rossiter Worthington

1. Going at random or by chance; done or made at hazard, or without settled direction, aim, or purpose; hazarded without previous calculation; left to chance; haphazard; as, a random guess.

Some random truths he can impart.— William Wordsworth

So sharp a spur to the lazy, and so strong a bridle to the random.— Herbert Spencer

2. Statistics Of, pertaining to, or resulting from a process of selection from a starting set of items, in which the probability of selecting any one object in the starting set is equal to the probability of selecting any other.

3. Construction of unequal size or shape; made from components of unequal size or shape.

at random in a manner so that all possible results have an equal probability of occurrence; for processes, each possible result is counted separately although the same type of result may occur more than once. — Random courses Masonry, courses of stone of unequal thickness. — Random shot, a shot not directed or aimed toward any particular object, or a shot with the muzzle of the gun much elevated. — Random work Masonry, stonework consisting of stones of unequal sizes fitted together, but not in courses nor always with flat beds.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: GCIDE editors

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

1.Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly."

2.Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just a bunch of random business types."

3.(pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. "He's just a random loser."

4.Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organised. "The program has a random set of misfeatures." "That's a random name for that function." "Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly."

5.In no particular order, though deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly."

6.Arbitrary. "It generates a random name for the scratch file."

7.Gratuitously wrong, i.e. poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could easily have been coded using only three registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. What randomness!

8.A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.

9.Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not known to the hacker speaking). "I went to the talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions".

10.(occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also J. Random, some random X. [Jargon File]

(1995-12-05)

The Jargon File

1.Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird. “The system's been behaving pretty randomly.”

2.Assorted; undistinguished. “Who was at the conference?” “Just a bunch of random business types.”

3.(pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. “He's just a random loser.”

4.Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organized. “The program has a random set of misfeatures.” “That's a random name for that function.” “Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly.”

5.In no particular order, though deterministic. “The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly.”

6.Arbitrary. “It generates a random name for the scratch file.”

7.Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could easily have been coded using only three registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. What randomness!

8.n. A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.

9.n. Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not known to the hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2. “I went to the talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions”.

10.n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also J. Random, some random X.

11.[UK] Conversationally, a non sequitur or something similarly out-of-the-blue. As in: “Stop being so random!” This sense equates to ‘hatstand’, taken from the Viz comic character “Roger Irrelevant - He's completely Hatstand.”