bias

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See also: Bias

English

Etymology

c. 1520 in the sense "oblique line". As a technical term in the game of bowls c. 1560, whence the figurative use (c. 1570).

From Middle French biais, adverbially ("sideways, askance, against the grain") c. 1250, as a noun ("oblique angle, slant") from the late 16th century. The French word is likely from Old Occitan biais, itself of obscure origin, most likely from Vulgar Latin *biaxius (“with two axes”).

Pronunciation

Noun

bias (countable and uncountable, plural biases or biasses)

  1. (countable, uncountable) Inclination towards something.
    Synonyms: predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection
    • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 4, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. , London: Eliz Holt, for Thomas Basset, , →OCLC, book I, page 12:
      Morality […] give[s] a bias to all their [men's] actions.
    • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 4:
      nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biasses to draw too much
    • 2020 December 3, Cade Metz, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Researcher Says She Was Fired Over Paper Highlighting Bias in A.I.”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      Researchers worry that the people who are building artificial intelligence systems may be building their own biases into the technology.
    • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 49:
      Reshaping [of British Railways] was far from perfect. It was tainted by statistical overreach, the unconscious biases of its author, and by the political demands being placed upon the BRB by government.
  2. (countable, textiles) The diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric.
  3. (countable, textiles) A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (such as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.
  4. (electronics) A voltage or current applied to an electronic device, such as a transistor electrode, to move its operating point to a desired part of its transfer function.
  5. (statistics) The difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
  6. (sports) In the games of crown green bowls and lawn bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl. In lawn bowls, the curved course is caused only by the shape of the bowl. The use of weights is prohibited.
  7. (South Korean idol fandom) A person's favourite member of a K-pop band.
    Hypernym: fave
    Coordinate term: ult
    • 2015, "Top 10 Tips For Travelling To Korea", UKP Magazine, Winter 2015, page 37:
      The last thing you want is for your camera to die when you finally get that selca with your bias.
    • 2019, Katy Sprinkel, The Big Book of BTS: The Deluxe Unofficial Bangtan Book, unnumbered page:
      Sweet, sensitive, and impossibly sassy, V is many fans' bias, and an integral member of the group.
    • 2019 May 7, Joelle Weatherford, “Can't stop the K-Pop train”, in The Eagle, Northeast Texas Community College, page 8:
      One in particular, Minho, really caught my eye. He became what is called my bias or favorite member.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:bias.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

bias (third-person singular simple present biases or biasses, present participle biasing or biassing, simple past and past participle biased or biassed)

  1. (transitive) To place bias upon; to influence.
    Our prejudices bias our views.
    • 1963 June, “News and Comment: Le Plan Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 364:
      No doubt they overlook the L.M.R.'s allegedly faulty financial estimates for the Euston-Liverpool/Manchester scheme, which have biassed the Treasury, and perhaps the open-minded Dr. Beeching, against electrification without renewed examination of projects.
  2. (electronics) To give a bias to.
    • 2002, H. Dijkstra, J. Libby, Overview of silicon detectors, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 494, 86–93, p. 87.
      On the ohmic side n+ is implanted to provide the ohmic contact to bias the detector.

Translations

Adjective

bias (comparative more bias, superlative most bias)

  1. Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.
    Synonym: biased
  2. Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.

Translations

Adverb

bias (not comparable)

  1. In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally.
    to cut cloth bias

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Indonesian

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia id

Etymology

From Malay bias from English bias, from French biais.

Pronunciation

Noun

bias

  1. bias,
    1. inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection.
    2. (statistics) the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
    3. (acoustics, optics) the turning or bending of any wave, such as a light or sound wave, when it passes from one medium into another of different optical density.
    4. (colloquial) a person's favourite member of an idol group, such as K-pop band.

Derived terms

Further reading

Malay

Etymology

Related to tempias. Sense of inclination from phono-semantic matching of English bias from French biais.

Pronunciation

Verb

bias (Jawi spelling بياس)

  1. to be drifted by the wind
  2. to divert, to deflect, to go off course
  3. (physics) to refract

Noun

bias (plural bias-bias, informal 1st possessive biasku, 2nd possessive biasmu, 3rd possessive biasnya)

  1. the act of diversion or deflection
    Synonyms: biasan, pesongan
  2. bias
    1. inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection.
      Synonyms: kecenderungan, pincang
    2. (statistics) the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
      Synonym: pincang

Derived terms

References

  • Pijnappel, Jan (1875) “بيس bijas”, in Maleisch-Hollandsch woordenboek, John Enschede en Zonen, Frederik Muller, page 69
  • Wilkinson, Richard James (1901) “بيس biyas”, in A Malay-English dictionary, Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh limited, page 142
  • Wilkinson, Richard James (1932) “bias”, in A Malay-English dictionary (romanised), volume I, Mytilene, Greece: Salavopoulos & Kinderlis, page 134

Further reading

Old Irish

Verb

bias

  1. third-person singular future relative of at·tá
  2. third-person singular future relative of benaid

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
bias bias
pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/ 		mbias
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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