bias
pronunciation
How to pronounce bias in British English:
UK [ˈbaɪəs]
How to pronounce bias in American English:
US [ˈbaɪəs]
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- Noun:
- a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation
- a line or cut across a fabric that is not at right angles to a side of the fabric
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- Verb:
- influence in an unfair way
- cause to be biased
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- Adjective:
- slanting diagonally across the grain of a fabric
Word Origin
- bias
- bias: [16] English acquired bias from Old French biais, but its previous history is uncertain. It probably came via Old Provençal, but where from? Speculations include Latin bifacem ‘looking two ways’, from bi- ‘two’ and faciēs ‘face’, and Greek epikársios ‘oblique’. When the word first entered English it meant simply ‘oblique line’, but by the end of the 16th century it was being applied more specifically to the game of bowls, in the sense of the ‘bowl’s curved path’, and also the ‘unequal weighting given to the bowl in order to achieve such a path’.The modern figurative senses ‘inclination’ and ‘prejudice’ derive from this.
- bias (n.)
- 1520s, from French biais "slant, slope, oblique," also figuratively, "expedient, means" (13c., originally in Old French a past participle adjective, "sideways, askance, against the grain"), which is of unknown origin, probably from Old Provençal biais, with cognates in Old Catalan and Sardinian; possibly from Vulgar Latin *(e)bigassius, from Greek epikarsios "athwart, crosswise, at an angle," from epi- "upon" + karsios "oblique," from PIE *krs-yo-, from root *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)). It became a noun in Old French. "[A] technical term in the game of bowls, whence come all the later uses of the word" [OED]. Transferred sense of "predisposition, prejudice" is from 1570s in English. For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride, lest his mind should seem to be occupied with things mean and transitory; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections colour and infect the understanding. [Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum," 1620]
- bias (v.)
- 1620s, literal and figurative, from bias (n.). Related: Biased; biasing.
Synonym
Example
- 1. The bias is also there in employment .
- 2. This deflationary bias could spread through the eurozone .
- 3. That is likely to lead to a significant statistical bias .
- 4. Some languages show a bias for the masculine gender .
- 5. I must admit a bias here : my son is a u.s. diplomat serving in baghdad .