arbitrary
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English
Etymology
From Middle English arbitrarie, Latin arbitrārius (“arbitrary, uncertain”), from arbiter (“witness, on-looker, listener, judge, overseer”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, (haplology) /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹi/
- (US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈɑɹ.bɪˌtɹɛ(ə).ɹi/
Adjective
arbitrary (comparative more arbitrary, superlative most arbitrary)
- (usually of a decision) Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
- Benjamin Franklin's designation of "positive" and "negative" to different charges was arbitrary.
- The decision to use 18 years as the legal age of adulthood was arbitrary, as both age 17 and 19 were reasonable alternatives.
- Determined by impulse rather than reason; sometimes heavy-handed.
- 1937/1938, Albert Einstein, letter to Max Born
- The Russian trials were Stalin's purges, with which he attempted to consolidate his power. Like most people in the West, I believed these show trials to be the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator.
- 1906, Gelett Burgess, Are You a Bromide?:
- The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.
- 1937/1938, Albert Einstein, letter to Max Born
- (mathematics) Any, out of all that are possible.
- The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.
- Determined by independent arbiter.
- (linguistics) Not representative or symbolic; not iconic.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
based on individual discretion or judgment
unrestrained by law; tyrannical
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determined by impulse
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chosen at random
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(mathematics)
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Noun
arbitrary (plural arbitraries)
- Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.
- 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:
- And in this long chain of consistence, a chain stretching from the long dead to the far unborn, the notion of the arbitrary could only survive as the notion of a pre-established arbitrary.
Derived terms
Further reading
- “arbitrary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “arbitrary”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
arbitrariness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
