• adj. [數(shù)] 隨機的；任意的；胡亂的
• n. 隨意
• adv. 胡亂地

縮寫自短語 at random,高速的，引申詞義橫沖直撞的，莽撞的，后用于指隨機的。來自古法 語 randon,沖，沖力，速度，來自 randir,快跑，詞源同 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個人被從一輛面包車中發(fā)射的亂彈打死了。

來自柯林斯例句

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

我們收到了一些答復，并從中隨機挑選了一個。

來自柯林斯例句

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

任何借助望遠鏡瞄準器的像樣射手都可以隨意把我們逐個干掉。

來自柯林斯例句

4. I knew nothing beyond a few random facts.

除了一些零星的情況外，我什么也不知道。

來自柯林斯例句

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

小孩子的言行常常是隨性而為。

來自柯林斯例句