memoryless

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English memory
Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.
Proto-Germanic *leusaną
Proto-Germanic *lausaz
Proto-Germanic *-lausaz
Proto-West Germanic *-laus
Old English -lēas
Middle English -les
English -less
English memoryless

    From memory + -less.

    Adjective

    memoryless (not comparable)

    1. Without a memory or memories.
      • 1852 July, Herman Melville, “(please specify the book number)”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
        Now the wide and vacant blurrings of my early life thicken in my mind. All goes wholly memoryless to me now. It may have been that about that time I grew sick with some fever, […]
    2. (probability theory) Of a probability distribution, such that any derived probability from a set of random samples is distinct and has no information (i.e. "memory") of earlier samples.

    Derived terms

    See also

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