Beta

[Baker, John]

        I see that the OED is missing the investments meaning of beta, where the beta of a stock or portfolio is a number describing the relation of its returns with those of the financial market as a whole.  This is a fundamental concept of contemporary investments theory and practice.  Beta may be contrasted with alpha (also missing from the OED), which is a risk-adjusted measure of the so-called active return on an investment.  I'm not sure if these terms were originated (or popularized) by the work of Harry Markowitz in the 1950s or that of Jack Treynor and others in formulating the capital asset pricing model in the early 1960s.  They have been in wide use, within the financial community, for decades.  Wikipedia has articles on alpha (finance) and beta (finance).


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 1:57 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Beta

There was also "beta male", as applied to Al Gore during the 2000 campaign, but that was different (although, unlike _beta_ in "beta blocker", another adjectival use).

LH

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Date: January 20, 2012 12:42:30 PM EST
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Beta
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>
> The OED has draft additions for beta tester and beta customer, but today I encountered beta reader, which even has an article on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_reader).
>
> If this use of beta hasn't spread to other uses, this meaning is transparent enough to do so. Perhaps an adjective meaning is called for.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org