We've cut together our 3-part series on the etymology of "Average" from 2017 into one full-length episode. This takes us from the history of maritime insurance and its connection to Islamic science to the origins of coffee, from the development of the mathematics of probability, early astronomy, to the first property insurance, and from the development of statistics to the first life insurance, and Beowulf!

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Show notes & credits: http://www.alliterative.net/average
Transcript: http://www.alliterative.net/average-t...

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Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:39 Early astronomy & Ptolemy
00:02:23 Etymology of 'average'
00:03:35 Early roots of maritime insurance
00:05:14 Etymology and origins of coffee
00:06:07 Coffeehouses
00:06:40 Origin of Lloyd's of London
00:08:15 Etymologies of 'likely', 'chance', 'probability'
00:09:05 Origins of probability mathematics
00:10:31 The problem of points
00:12:12 Etymologies of 'gamble', 'luck', 'speed'
00:14:17 Solution to the problem of points
00:16:24 Early astronomy and mathematics
00:18:19 Development of property insurance
00:20:37 Early forms of life insurance and statistics
00:22:05 Etymology of 'statistics'
00:23:06 Development of statistics and demography
00:27:12 First life insurance company
00:30:22 First stock exchanges
00:32:10 Etymologies of 'bull' and 'bear'
00:33:15 Beowulf & Beowulf clusters