Arbitrarily at random

A recent Times crossword (#25410) used arbitrarily as the definitional part of a clue; the answer required was at random.

I was inclined to quibble: haphazard, unarranged, accidental, maybe. But arbitrary suggests just personal whim.

The OED seemed to provide some support. Arbitrary does not appear in any of the definitional entries for random, & random does not appear under the definitional parts of either arbitrarily or arbitrary.

Interestingly, however, according to the OED, random play is ‘a facility on a digital music player for playing tracks in an arbitrary order’. One wonders just exactly how the algorithm works for that choice.

Even more interestingly, the word random itself comes originally from Norman French & means speed, haste, impetuousness, violence, or to run fast, gallop. Hence, presumably, the lack of time for thinking & deliberating on your random choices.

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