Forms: (5 auerays) 7 auer- avaridge, 7 averige, 8 avirage, 5– average. [Appears first c. 1500: the corresponding term in F. is avarie, Cotgr., 1611 avaris (? plural), Catalan averia, Sp. averia (also found as haberia), Pg. and It. avaria; also in Du. avarij, haverij, Ger. hafarei, havarie, Da. havari, all from the Romance langs. The earliest instances occur in connection with the maritime trade of the Mediterranean; but the derivation is uncertain (see below). The Eng. auerays (plural) in Arnold’s Chron. (if not a misprint) was probably meant for the F. word; the form average (also in Arnold’s Chron.) is confined to English, and evidently formed on the model of lodemanage (pilotage), primage, etc.: see -AGE.]
I. Maritime use.
† 1. orig. A duty, tax or impost charged upon goods; a customs-duty, or the like. Obs.
(The original use of avaria, averia, avarie in the maritime codes, ordinances and records of the Mediterranean.)
[a. 1200. Assises of Jerusalem, xlii. (Pardessus I. 277). Et sachies que selui [aver] qui est gete ne doit estre conté fors tant com il cousta o toutes ses avaries (transl.) Know that that property which is thrown overboard shall be reckoned only at what it cost with all its charges: in Venetian version dazii e spese, i. e. duties and expenses).
c. 1250. Consulado del Mar, lix. (1791). Lo nólit è les avaries (i.e. the freight and charges).
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), III. 425. The Averia, or tax paid on account of convoys to guard the ships sailing to and from America.]
1502. Arnold, Chron., 180. And ouer that alle maner of grauntis … of youre custumes or subsidyes or auerage … be voyd and in none effecte.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. III. i. (1743), 146. The goods of Clergymen are discharged … from Tolls and Customs of Average, Pontage, Murage, Pavage.
1760. Burn, Eccl. Law (1797), III. 204. Ecclesiastical persons ought to be quit and discharged of tolls, customs, avirage, pontage, paviage, and the like.
2. Any charge or expense over and above the freight incurred in the shipment of goods, and payable by their owner. (In this sense it still occurs in petty average, and the now inoperative phrase, average accustomed in Bills of Lading: see quotations 1540 and 1865.)
1491. in Arnold, Chron., 112. And ouer that to pai or doo pay all maner auerays as wel for Burdeux as for Thamys.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., xiv. Fraight in any shipp … for euery tonne homewardes xiijs. iiijd., and for primage and lodemanage of euery tonne vid. stirling, with all auerages accustumed after thold use and custume of English Shippes.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., Average, is also a little Duty, which those Merchants, who send Goods in another Mans Ship, do pay to the Master of it, for his care over and above the Freight; for in Bills of Lading it is expressed—Paying so much Freight for the said Goods, with Primage and Average accustomed.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 253. Then he … may receive the Goods, paying the Shipper his Freight and Avaridge; but if there be extraordinary Avaridge, or if the Goods be damaged, then the Sum of the damage, and of the extraordinary Avaridge, must be deducted from the Sums that D. E. and G. are to receive, they being as Bodomerers or Assurers.
1865. J. Lees, Laws Brit. Ship. (ed. 9), 203. The term ‘average’ [in bills of lading] applies to certain small charges, called petty or accustomed averages, of which, generally, one-third falls to the ship, and two-thirds to the cargo. Both these indefinite terms … are often adjusted at a precise sum for the voyage.
3. spec. The expense or loss to owners, arising from damage at sea to the ship or cargo.
[1556–84. See Guidon de la Mer, Pardessus V. 387.
1611. Cotgr., Avaris, decay of wares, or merchandise; leckage of wines; also, the charges of the cariage, or measuring thereof.]
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 127. To defray the charges of averige; for it will not be alwaies faire weather.
[1664. Spelman, Averagium … à Gall. avaris … est detrimentum, quod vehendis mercibus accidit; ut fluxio vini, frumenti corruptio, mercium in tempestatibus ejectio. Quibus addunt vecturæ sumptus, et necessariæ aliæ impensæ.]
1755. Magens, Insurances, I. 347. Suppose that of this Silver, during the Voyage 1/4 had been diminished … that is an Average or Loss, whatever it is called, of 25 per Cent. Ibid., II. 74. An Action for the Damage or Decay of any Ships or Goods, that are insured, generally called Average, must be brought within a Year and a half at furthest, if such Average happened within the limits of Europe or Barbary.
1848. Arnould, Mar. Insur. (1866), I. I. v. 234. The word ‘Average,’ as employed in this clause, means ‘partial loss by sea damage.’
4. The incidence of any such charge, expense or loss; esp. the equitable distribution of expense or loss, when of general incidence, among all the parties interested, in proportion to their several interests.
Particular Average is the incidence of the partial loss or damage of ship, cargo or freight, through unavoidable accident, upon the individual owners (or insurers) of these respective interests.
General Average is apportionment of loss caused by intentional damage to ship (e.g., cutting away of masts or boats), or sacrifice of cargo and consequent loss of freight, or of expense incurred by putting into a port in distress, by acceptance of towage or other services, to secure the general safety of ship and cargo; in which case contribution is made by the owners (or insurers) of ship, cargo and freight in proportion to the value of their respective interests.
(In connection with Maritime Law and Marine Insurance this has come to be the prevailing sense of the word. Its first known occurrence is in the 14th c. Civil Statute of Cataro (Pardessus V. 97), where it is enacted that anything given as a present or ‘Christmas-box’ (pro strena), or paid in tribute (pedocia), with the consent of the majority, for the good of the vessel, shall be shared by way of average (illud dividatur per avariam). Cf. quot. 1603, 1727.)
1598. W. Phillip, Linschoten’s Trav., in Arb., Garner, III. 413. In their ships, there is no Average. For when there happeneth any loss, or that any goods are thrown overboard; he standeth to the loss that oweth [owneth] the goods, without any more accounts: [etc.].
1603. Act 1 Jas. I., xxxii. The Master, Owner, and Shipper, payinge the same [rate for repair of Dover Harbour], shall have allowance of the Marchants, according to the rate of the Goods in the same Shippe, Vessell, or Crayer, by way of Average.
1607. Cowell, Int., Average … is also used for a certaine contribution that merchants and others doe every man proportionably make toward their losses, who have their goods cast into the sea for the safegard of the shippe, or of the goods and lives of them in the shippe in time of a tempest.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 136. In such a case, when goods by stormes are cast ouer-boord, it shal not be made good by contribution or aueridge, but by the Masters owne purse: For if hee overburthen the Ship above the true marke of lading, hee is to pay a fine.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3339/4. All Persons the Freighters of the Ship call’d the St. Jago Briganteen … which was cast away … upon the Coast of Portugal, are desired to go to the Jamaica Coffee-House … to sign an Instrument of a general Average, in order to receive their Dividend of the Goods saved. Ibid. (1715), No. 4872/3. The whole must come into a general Average, that every one concerned in the Loss may receive a due Proportion of what is saved.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Average or Averidge, Such sum shall be divided among the several claimers by way of average, in proportion to their respective interests and demands.
1881. Shipping Gaz., 29 March, 7/1. Defendants said that as by what had happened they had lost their freight, they were entitled to claim a contribution, by way of General Average, on account of the loss of freight.
b. attrib. and Comb., as average-adjuster, -stater, one whose profession it is to adjust the claims and liabilities of all parties concerned in a case of General Average, and to make up an average-statement showing the same.
Average bond, a guarantee given to the master of the ship by the consignees of a cargo liable to General Average, by which they undertake that if he delivers the cargo, they will pay the general average contribution as soon as its amount is authoritatively determined.
1865. J. Lees, Laws Brit. Ship. (ed. 9), 354. Or the documents and vouchers are placed in the hands of a professional average-adjuster to prepare an average statement. Ibid., 347. A general average loss is that which has been sustained by some part of the ship or cargo for the safety and preservation of the whole.
1883. Standard, 19 May, 2/8. Mr. ——— … who was described as an ‘average adjustor.’
II. Transferred use.
5. transf. The distribution of the aggregate inequalities (in quantity, quality, intensity, etc.) of a series of things among all the members of the series, so as to equalize them, and ascertain their common or mean quantity, etc., when so treated; the determination or statement of an arithmetical mean; a medial estimate. Now only in phrases at an average, on an average.
1735. Berkeley, Querist, § 497 (1750), 53 (R.). Whether the small Town of Birmingham alone doth not, upon an Average, circulate every Week one Way or other, to the Value of fifty thousand Pounds?
1758. Dyche & Pardon, Average, the taking of several things together, and considering the profit of the one and the loss of the other, so as to make a mean or common price.
1787. G. White, Selborne, i. 3. Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr. (1858), 121. Under such conditions and averages as it can.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 188. Earthquake-shocks occur, on an average, about three times a week.
6. The arithmetical mean so obtained; the medium amount, the generally prevailing, or ruling, quantity, rate or degree; the ‘common run.’
[Not in Chambers, Supp., 1753.
1755. Johnson, Average, 4. A medium, a mean proportion. (No quot.)]
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xxvi. (ed. 3), 497 (R.). Looking to the average of sensations, the plurality and the preponderancy is in favor of happiness by a vast excess.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, iii. § 185. The month’s average of wrecks has been as high as three a day.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., § 125. Where a mean is taken, without any need for arranging the several observations according to their approach to it, it has been called an average.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., iii. 92. The hotel itself is … very much above the average.
1874. Reynolds, John Bapt., i. § 2. 15. To predict the future, not only in its averages or in the law of its evolution, but in its detail.
Hence Averagarian (nonce-wd.).
1864. Cornh. Mag., Aug., 219. The averagarians usually give the statistics of murders, suicides, and marriages, as proof of the periodic uniformity of events.
[Few words have received more etymological investigation: see Diez, Dozy, Littré, Wedgwood, E. Müller, Skeat, etc., and especially the fruitful researches of the late G. P. Marsh in the American edition of Wedgwood (New York, 1861). The latter has conclusively shown that, as a maritime term, avaria, averia, was first used in the Mediterranean, and that its original meaning was duty charged upon goods. In connection with this cf. also quotations from Muratori, Chron. Parmense (in Du Cange s.v. Averia), e.g., Conscenderint lembum Averiæ ad excipiendos prædictos galeones, ‘they went on board the revenue cutter to intercept the aforesaid galleons.’ These results quite dispose of the two derivations suggested in Diez from Ger. hafen haven, and Arab. sawâr loss, damage, the latter being merely a mod. Arabic translation and adaptation of the western term in its latest sense. Mr. Marsh’s connection of the word with the Arabic or Turkish avania, avaria, is of great weight; but as said under AVANIA, that word is more probably adopted from the Franks. May not averia be a derivative of It. avere, OF. aveir, property, goods (see AVER sb.), in sense of ‘charge on property or goods’? Compare such terms as tonnage, poundage, pollage (charge on polls). The chief difficulty lies in the early It. form avaria, not averia, and F. avarie: the Catalan has however been averia since 13th c.: see Marsh on Sp. and Catalan use of the word, and Averia, Avaria in Du Cange. It is to be noted that OF. avarie was used of other than maritime dues or charges; in a document dated Nicosia, 18 March 1468, in De Mas Latrie, Histoire de Chypre, III. 276, the owner of a mill is bound ‘de paier l’ensençive (= cens) de l’abaie de Bibi, et tout autre avarie que le dit moulin paie aujourdhui.’ Cf. also certain uses of avérage in Godefroy.]
