observation

Etymology

From Middle English observacion, borrowed from Middle French observacion. Also a borrowing from French observation and a learned borrowing from Latin observātiō(n-). Morphologically observe + -ation

noun

1. The act of observing, and the fact of being observed (see observance)
   The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier. 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
2. The act of noting and recording some event; or the record of such noting.
3. A remark or comment.
   To observations which ourselves we make / We grow more partial for the observer's sake. 1734, Alexander Pope, Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men
4. A judgement based on observing.
   This hypothesis goes by many names, including group resistence, the threshold effect, and the gender paradox. Because the hypothesis holds such wide appeal, it is worth revisiting the logic behind it. The hypothesis is built on the factual observation that fewer females than males act antisocially. 27 September 2001, Terrie E. Moffitt, Avshalom Caspi, Michael Rutter, Phil A. Silva, Sex Differences in Antisocial Behaviour: Conduct Disorder, Delinquency, and Violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Cambridge University Press, page 151
5. Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.
6. A regime under which a subject is routinely observed.
7. Philosophically as: the phenomenal presence of human being existence.
8. (stochastics) A realization of a random variable.