Randoms

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A group of individuals deemed unpredictable or selected without a specific pattern or plan; entities characterized by a lack of discernible order or systematic arrangement; those whose actions or decisions are determined by chance rather than intention or rationale
2. Entities or individuals that are gathered without deliberate intention or structure, embodying variability and spontaneity; objects characterized by their arrangement in a disorderly fashion; actors whose responses are influenced by chance occurrences rather than predetermined factors
3. A collection of people or things chosen without a clear method, representing unpredictability and variability; items that embody an absence of specific organization; participants whose behavior results from random factors rather than systematic choice

Etymology: The plural "randoms" is an inflected form of "random", so the essential story is the adjective's. That word came into English in Middle English as "randon", borrowed from Old French, where it meant a rushing or headlong course, the sense of galloping at full speed. Old French "randon" derived from the verb "randir", "to run or gallop", which is thought to have come from a Frankish word meaning a run or race, related to Old Norse "rend", also meaning a run. Its distant ancestor is a Germanic verb meaning "run", traceable back to a very old root for flowing or moving. The surprise is how far the sense has drifted. A word that once described the violent rush of a horse has become a word for lack of direction. Speed and momentum turned, over centuries, into aimlessness: something that moves without a planned course is one that seems to go wherever it happens to be carried, and "random" came to describe choices with no system behind them.

Synonyms: variables, samples, arbitraries

Antonyms: constants, fixed values