estimate
verb/ˈɛs.tɪˌmeɪt/ · /ˈɛs.təˌmeɪt/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin aestimātus, perfect passive participle of aestimō (“to estimate”) (see -ate), older form aestumō (“to value, rate, esteem”); from Old Latin *ais-temos (“one who cuts copper”), meaning one in the Roman Republic who mints money. Compare Middle English estymatt (“reputed”) / estimat. See also the doublet esteem, as well as aim.
1
To calculate roughly, often from imperfect data.
- I estimate that I need 400 board feet of lumber to complete a job, and then order 350 because I do not want a surplus, or perhaps order 450 because I do not want to make any subsequent orders.1965, Ian Hacking, Logic of Statistical Inference:
- Higher real prices for durables are estimated to have reduced their consumption per capita by 1.09% in 1930, […]2003, Alexander J. Field, Gregory Clark, William A. Sundstrom, Research in Economic History:
2
To judge and form an opinion of the value of, from imperfect data.
- It is by the weight of silver, and not the name of the piece, that men estimate commodities and exchange them.1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC:
- It is always very difficult to estimate the age in which you are living.1870, John Campbell Shairp, Culture and Religion in Some of Their Relations:
- Synonyms
- appraise, assess, approximate, give, put
- Derived terms
- costimate, estimable, estimatable, estimatingly, estimation, estimator, guesstimate, guestimate, misestimate, overestimate, reestimate, subestimate, underestimate