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Hi this Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 84. The word origin today is average.
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Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. Today the word average simply refers to
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adding up several numbers and then dividing the total by the number of
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things added together. Yeah. So it's pretty simple.
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Let's continue. The origin of the word average comes out of the Middle Ages and
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was similar to the idea of what we would call insurance or at least call insurance
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today, especially insurance on shipped goods. Back in the Middle Ages shipping
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was the main way of transporting goods. Really the only way, from one country to
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another. And there was a lot of loss due to accidents, ships lost at sea from
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storms, pirates etc. or who knows maybe something else moving around you know,
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you don't know if any crew stole anything. In order to keep the business
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of commerce and trade going, a charge above the shipping had to be made. Okay.
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This charge was paid to the owners of the goods or the ship . Yeah or like
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the ship or the ship captain. I guess for taking care of the goods and any loss or
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damage of the goods through transport or maybe the shipping company. Different
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versions of this word could be found in several languages such as ... I hope I'm
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pronouncing these right. Avarie maybe in French, avaria in Italian and or averia
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or averia in Spanish. Some believe it may have derived from awariya.
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okay in Arabic. All of these words have to do with damage to the ships or goods
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in order to keep commerce operating in a fair way. They had to make this charge in
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which all parties, all groups... so if you know the producer of the goods , or if
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there was a middleman for trade, the shipping company itself and maybe on the
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other side whoever the merchants the goods were going to. All parties had to
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average out the cost and share in any losses. Yeah. Because of only one side or
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just one group is taking the losses. It won't work. Nobody will want to
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participate in this. Therefore an average cost was determined for all to pay and
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our modern word of average was born. So this is where average came from. So it
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actually came from shipping and it really had more to do with something
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like you know, like I said what we would call today kind of an insurance or
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insurance policy. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I
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hope it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.