[R] Curious about nomenclature: random deviates

[Andrew Robinson]

Hi all,

a student of mine recently stumbled whilst reading the R help files for the 
statistical distributions.  She was confused by their assertion that, for 
example, 'rnorm' generates random deviates.  I have seen this label used 
elsewhere, although it does not seem universal - for example, Ripley (1987) 
doesn't have it in the index. Does anyone know why they're called random 
deviates, as opposed to random numbers?

Andrew
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Cited:

Ripley, B.D. 1987. Stochastic Simulation. Wiley-Interscience;