random

缩写自短语 at random,高速的，引申词义横冲直撞的，莽撞的，后用于指随机的。来自古法 语 randon,冲，冲力，速度，来自 randir,快跑，词源同 run.

random

random: [14] The antecedents of random are somewhat murky. It originally meant ‘impetuosity, sudden speed, violence’, and only in the mid 17th century emerged as an adjective meaning ‘haphazard’. It was borrowed from Old French randon, which was probably a derivative of the verb randir ‘run impetuously’. This in turn was based on Frankish *rant ‘running’, which was apparently descended from prehistoric Germanic *randa.

This originally meant ‘edge’ (it is the source of English rand [OE], now obsolete as a term for ‘edge’, but reintroduced in the 20th century via Afrikaans as the name of the basic South African currency unit), but it was also widely used for ‘shield’, and it is thought that the link with ‘running impetuously’ may be the notion of soldiers running along with their shields.
=> rand

random (adj.)

"having no definite aim or purpose," 1650s, from at random (1560s), "at great speed" (thus, "carelessly, haphazardly"), alteration of Middle English noun randon "impetuosity, speed" (c. 1300), from Old French randon "rush, disorder, force, impetuosity," from randir "to run fast," from Frankish *rant "a running" or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *randa (cognates: Old High German rennen "to run," Old English rinnan "to flow, to run;" see run (v.)).

In 1980s U.S. college student slang it began to acquire a sense of "inferior, undesirable." (A 1980 William Safire column describes it as a college slang noun meaning "person who does not belong on our dormitory floor.") Random access in reference to computer memory is recorded from 1953. Related: Randomly; randomness.

1. Three people were killed by shots fired at random from a minibus.

3个人被从一辆面包车中发射的乱弹打死了。

2. We received several answers, and we picked one at random.

我们收到了一些答复，并从中随机挑选了一个。

3. Any decent shot with telescopic sights could pick us off at random.

任何借助望远镜瞄准器的像样射手都可以随意把我们逐个干掉。

4. I knew nothing beyond a few random facts.

除了一些零星的情况外，我什么也不知道。

5. Children's words and actions are often fairly random.

小孩子的言行常常是随性而为。