Etymograph

English

latent variable

Latent variable comes from English latent ‘hidden’.

  1. English1500–presentlatent‘hidden’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1995latent variable

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. English1500–presentlatent‘hidden’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1995latent variable

Earliest quotation: 1995, J. Tague-Sutcliffe, L. Vaughan: “Each of these is a latent variable, which is…”

Made of the words latent + variable

Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- ‘to bark, howl’

…

Latin lateō ‘lie hidden’

Latin latēns

Old French latent

Middle English latent

English latent

Latin varius ‘different, various’

Latin variare ‘to change’

Old French variable

English variable

The story

The variables are latent (‘hidden’) because they are not directly observed, but instead inferred from other variables.

Every English word from English latent

Today it means

noun A variable that is not directly measured but is inferred by means of a mathematical model from one or more directly observed variables.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / English latent / latent variable

Shirt and support for this word