sample
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɑːm.pəl/
ipa: /ˈsam.pəl/
ipa: /ˈsæm.pəl/
ipa: [ˈsɛəmpəɫ]
ipa: /ˈsæːm.pəl/
ipa: /ˈsaːm.pəl/
ipa: /ˈsaːm.pəl/
ipa: [ˈsäːmpɯ]
rhymes: -ɑːmpəl
rhymes: -æmpəl
Forms: form: samples
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English saumple, sample, from Old French essample (“example”), from Latin exemplum. Doublet of example and exemplum.
Senses: examples: text: a blood sample
text: He looked down into Glen Doone first, and sniffed as if he were smelling it, like a sample of goods from a wholesale house; and then he looked at the hills over yonder, and then he stared at me.
ref: 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “Quo Warranto?”, in Lorna Doone, page 99:
text: Then one day in May 2012, he picked up a free sample of a Vietnamese-language magazine based in New Jersey. In it, he saw an article about a career Navy officer named Kimberly Mitchell and her search into her past.
ref: 2014 May 7, Anh Do, “War orphan named 'Precious Pearl' reunites with South Vietnamese soldier who rescued her in '72”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:
glosses: A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen.
examples: text: Large samples are generally more reliable than small samples due to having less variability.
text: It is interesting to find that, with the exception of a few imperfectly-observed South Sea Islanders, and whose actual numbers, if the measurements are correct, are very few, the English professional classes head the long list [in average height], and that the Anglo-Saxon race takes the chief place in it among the civilised communities, although it is possible it might stand second to the Scandinavian countries if a fair sample of their population were obtained.
ref: 1883, Sir Francis Galton et al., “Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee”, in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, page 269:
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: A subset or portion of a population that is systematically selected for measurement, observation, or questioning, with the objective of generating statistical information that accurately reflects the characteristics of the entire population.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: A small quantity of food for tasting, typically given away for free.
topics: business
glosses: A small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free.
examples: text: Jeffrey conceives a fascination with nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) who sings Blue Velvet, while her abusive, misogynist sugar-daddy Frank (Dennis Hopper) watches, caressing a sample of this same material.
ref: 2016 December 1, Peter Bradshaw, “Blue Velvet review – still inventive, sexy and bizarre”, in The Guardian:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Gratuitous borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording.
examples: text: Thus he concludes, and euery hardie knight / His ſample follow’d, and his brethren twaine, / The other Princes put on harneſſe light, / As footmen vſe.
ref: 1600, Torquato Tasso, translated by Edward Fairfax, Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem, London: Ar. Hatfield, translation of La Gerusalemme liberata (in Italian), book XI, page 200:
text: [The King] Liu’d in Court / (Which rare it is to do) moſt prais’d, moſt lou’d, / A ſample to the yongeſt.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 369, column 2:
glosses: Example; pattern.
Synonyms: example
specimen
Hyponyms: product sample
Derived terms: blood sample
convenience sample
core sample
engineering sample
grab sample
random sample
sample function
sample implementation
sample line
sample market
sample mean
sample path
sample point
sample room
sample scale
sample space
shot sample
snowball sample