actuary
actuary Lexical Profile
actuary Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A professional who compiles and analyzes statistics using mathematics and financial theory to calculate probabilities of risk, especially for insurance companies and pension funds.
"The insurance company hired a senior actuary to evaluate the financial risks associated with coastal flooding."
Historically, a clerk, registrar, or notary appointed to record the proceedings and acts of a court, convocation, or public body.
"In the ecclesiastical court, the actuary carefully transcribed the bishop's decrees into the official ledger."
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-16th century from Latin actuarius, meaning a shorthand writer or keeper of public accounts, derived from actus ('an act' or 'public business'). The modern sense referring to an insurance and risk statistician emerged in the late 18th century with the founding of the Equitable Life Assurance Society in London.