average

Etymology 1

From Middle French avarie, from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria (which is possibly from Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”)) + English suffix -age.

noun

1. (mathematics) The arithmetic mean.
   The average of 10, 20 and 24 is (10 + 20 + 24)/3 = 18.
   But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short. 2013-06-01, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11
2. (statistics) Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.
3. (law, marine) Financial loss due to damage to transported goods; compensation for damage or loss.
   Historically, the courts have allowed a general average claim only where the loss occurred as a result of the ship being in immediate peril.[…]The court awarded the carrier the general average claim. It noted that “a ship′s master should not be discouraged from taking timely action to avert a disaster,” and need not be in actual peril to claim general average. 2008, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle, International Business Law and Its Environment, page 219
4. Customs duty or similar charge payable on transported goods.
5. Proportional or equitable distribution of financial expense.
6. (sports) An indication of a player's ability calculated from his scoring record, etc.
   batting average

adj

1. (not comparable) Constituting or relating to the average.
   The average age of the participants was 18.5.
2. Neither very good nor very bad; rated somewhere in the middle of all others in the same category.
   I soon found I was only an average chess player.
3. Typical.
   The average family will not need the more expensive features of this product.
   We tend to think that exceptionally attractive men and women are outstanding but the fact is that they are more average than most. 2002, Andy Turnbull, The Synthetic Beast: When Corporations Come to Life, page 12
   Things that never would occur to more average children, with and without AD/HD, will give these children nightmares. 2004, Deirdre V. Lovecky, Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits, page 75
   In other words, highly attractive people like highly attractive communicators and more average people like more average communicators. 2009, Susan T. Fiske, Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology, page 73
4. (informal) Not outstanding, not good, banal; bad or poor.
   The graphics, sound, and most everything else are all very average. However, the main thing that brings this game down are the controls - they feel very clumsy and awkward at times. 2002, Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002, page 228
   But what the vast majority of the populace doesn′t realise is the fact that he′s only on TV because he became famous from one case, Winona Ryder's, which, by the way, he lost because he′s only a very average attorney. 2005, Brad Knight, Laci Peterson: The Whole Story: Laci, Scott, and Amber's Deadly Love Triangle, page 308
   In the piano stool there was a stack of music, mostly sentimental ballads intended to be sung by people with very average voices accompanied by not very competent pianists. 2009, Carn Tiernan, On the Back of the Other Side, page 62

verb

1. (transitive) To compute the average of, especially the arithmetic mean.
   If you average 10, 20 and 24, you get 18.
2. (transitive) Over a period of time or across members of a population, to have or generate a mean value of.
   The daily high temperature last month averaged 15°C.
   I averaged 75% in my examinations this year.
   The five roller-bearing A1s are now averaging 120,000 miles between shopping; this figure is an improvement of about 50 per cent on the norm of other ex-L.N.E. Pacific types. 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The roller-bearing A1s”, in Trains Illustrated, page 643
3. (transitive) To divide among a number, according to a given proportion.
   to average a loss
4. (intransitive) To be, generally or on average.
   Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build […] 1872, Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds

Etymology 2

From Middle English average, from Medieval Latin averagium, from aver (“horse or other beast of burden, service required from the same”) from Old English eafor (“obligation to carry goods and convey messages for one's lord”) from aferian (“to remove, take away”); + -age.

noun

1. (UK, law, obsolete) The service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.