Etymology
1. 1491, "financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit," from O.Fr.
avarie, from It.
avaria, a word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade. Sometimes traced to Ar.
'arwariya "damaged merchandise," but this may be rather a borrowing of the word from the Franks. OED suggests It.
avere, O.Fr.
aveir "property, goods," from L.
habere "to have." Meaning shifted to "equal sharing of such loss by the interested parties." Transferred sense of "statement of a medial estimate" is first recorded 1735. The adjective is first recorded 1770; the verb is from 1769. The mathematical extension is from 1755.
2. Etymology tree
3. Arabic عَوَار (ʕawār)
4. Proto-Afroasiatic
5. Proto-Semitic
6. Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy)
7. Proto-Afroasiatic *-t
8. Proto-Semitic *-at-
9. Arabic ـَة (-a)
10. Arabic ـِيَّة (-iyya)
11. Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya)bor.?
12. Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-
13. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti
14. Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
15. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti
16. Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰéh₁yeti
17. Proto-Italic *haβēō
18. Latin habēre
19. Old Italian avére
20. Old Italian -ìa
21. ?
22. Old Italian avariabor.
23. Old French avarie
24. Middle French avarie
25. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
26. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
27. Proto-Indo-European *-tós
28. Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos
29. Proto-Italic *-ātos
30. Latin -ātus
31. Proto-Indo-European *-ikos
32. Proto-Italic *-ikos
33. Latin -icus
34. Latin -āticus
35. Latin -āticum
36. Old French -agebor.
37. Middle English -age
38. English -age
39. English average
40. Not entirely certain. The oldest meaning in English is “customs duty”. Borrowed from Middle French avarie (“damage to ship or cargo”), from Old French avarie, from Old Italian avaria where it is first attested in the 12th century in the context of Mediterranean trade. From there most sources trace it to Arabic عَوَارِيَّة (ʕawāriyya, “damaged goods”), from عَوَار (ʕawār, “fault, blemish, defect, flaw”), from عَوِرَ (ʕawira, “to lose an eye”), but the OED gives it a Romance derivation from Italian avere (“property, goods”) or the like.
41. The English suffix -age was added in analogy to words like damage. See: Italian '
avere'.