[R] [OT] "normal" (as in "Guassian")

[Katharine Mullen]

There is some information and references regarding the name 'normal' in
the internet article 'Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of
Mathematics (N)', http://members.aol.com/jeff570/n.html, by John Aldrich.

It contains the comment, "Galton does not explain why he uses the term
"normal" but the sense of conforming to a norm ( = 'A standard, model,
pattern, type.' (OED)) seems implied."

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> Apologies to anyone who'd prefer not to see this query
> on this list; but I'm asking because it is probably the
> forum where I'm most likely to get a good answer!
>
> I'm interested in the provenance of the name "normal
> distribution" (for what I'd really prefer to call the
> "Gaussian" distribution).
>
> According to Wikipedia, "The name "normal distribution"
> was coined independently by Charles S. Peirce, Francis
> Galton and Wilhelm Lexis around 1875."
>
> So be it, if that was the case -- but I would like to
> know why they chose the name "normal": what did they
> intend to convey?
>
> As background: I'm reflecting a bit on the usage in
> statistics of "everyday language" as techincal terms,
> as in "significantly different". This, for instance,
> is likely to be misunderstood by the general publidc
> when they encounter statements in the media.
>
> Likewise, "normally distributed" would probably be
> interpreted as "distributed in the way one would
> normally expect" or, perhaps, "there was nothing
> unusual about the distribution."
>
> Comments welcome!
> With thanks,
> Ted.
>
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> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
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> Date: 02-Mar-08                                       Time: 13:04:17
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