On Fri, 14 Apr 2000, Rich Ulrich wrote:
> > I believe that the term was at least popularized, if not
> > originated, by Quetelet, who called it the distribution of
> > the "normal person".
>
> Stephen Stigler, in his fine history, gives many pages to Quetelet and
> his fascination with the "average man" and those descriptive curves.
> However, in a footnote on page 201 (1986 edition) Stigler says that Q.
> did not use the term "normal".
However, Quetelet did use the term "l'homme moyen." I believe that this
would translate to the "man in the middle." It's not too difficult to get
from there to the "average" or "the norm."
WBW
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William B. Ware, Professor and Chair Educational Psychology,
CB# 3500 Measurement, and Evaluation
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