I am reading a book about speaking ("Speak Like Churchill; Stand Like Lincoln"), and there is a chapter called "Lies, damned lies, and statistics!" The author was talking about how to use statistics effectively in a speech...but also how some people fudge with them. Then he said the word statistics comes from the Latin word statista, that means "politician." I didn't know that!

[I looked the word fudge up to see how the meaning of "cheat" or "exaggerate" is linked to the candy, and I didn't find a definitive explanation. Does anyone know?]

quote:

he said the word statistics comes from the Latin word statista, that means "politician."

Close. That's Italian, not Latin. The Italian, meaning "one skilled in statecraft" is from from the Latin status, "state".

Fudge, as a verb meaning to put together clumsily, is from 1610 but the noun, meaning candy, is from 1895. See Online Etymology Dictionary.

Here's another medium in which lies, damned lies, and statistics come together: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/...ago/H/bo3696845.html
I have it. Highly recommended.

According to the OED, statistics was borrowed from German statistik and French statistique, which were borrowed from modern Latin statisticus, from an unattested presumably Latin word *statista.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,

So, arnie, while there was etymology for the verb fudge, there wasn't for the candy. Is it the same etymology...or a completely different word?

I love the book, "How to Lie with Statistics."

Kalleh,

See the link I posted. It says

quote:

fudge (n.)
type of confection, 1895, Amer.Eng., apparently a word first used among students at women's colleges; perhaps a special use of fudge (v.).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

Ahhh. A special use of fudge?

I posted this article in another thread, but it also is relevant to this thread, particularly the lying with statistics conversation.