( 167 ) aforesaid. Litt. sects. 19, 21, et passim. fire. Britt. c. 7. Britton makes a distinction Avaunt dites. Conf. Chartar. 25 Edw. I. between aventure and mesaventure, (q. v.) (168) a medium or mean proportion in any European language except the English. Stevens on Av. 96, note (1). Webster considers this sense as derived from the practice of maritime contribution. Emerigon thinks that the true etymology has not yet been discovered, and probably never will be. Tr. des Assurances, ch. 12, sect. 39, § 4; quoting Marquardus, lib. 3, c. 4, them, for the benefit of all. Abbott on Ship. 473. Stevens on Av. 58. Loccenius de Jur. Mar. lib. 2, c. 8. 1 Story's Eq. Jur. § 490. Story on Bailm. § 583. Sometimes called general average, to distinguish it from special or particular average, and sometimes by the name of gross average, to distinguish it from customary average mentioned in bills of lading, which last species is sometimes called also petty n. 4. average. Abbott on Ship. 473, 474. Sir William Scott, (The Copenhagen,) 1 Rob. Adm. R. 293. Lord Mansfield, C. J. 3 Burr. 1555. See General average, Particular average, Gross average. Contribution seems to be the prevailing modern sense of this word. In a late Pennsylvania case, however, (Nimick v. Holmes, 25 Penn. St. R. 366, 371,) Lowrie, J. reverted to the more ancient signification, and defined average to mean "ship-damage, and not contribution, as is plain when we speak of particular average." But the term particular average has been condemned by Lord Tenterden, as "a very incorrect expression." Abbott on Ship. 473. In the French Ordonnance of the Marine, the subject of average is separated. from that of jettison and contribution. See supra. Emerigon mentions three senses in which the word was used; damage sustained, (le dommage souffert ;) the payment of a right, tax or duty, (le payment d'un droit ;) and contribution to a common loss, (la contribution d'une dépense commune.) Tr. des Ass. ch. 12, sect. 39, § 4. *** Of the origin of this word, little seems to be known with certainty. Spelman thinks it to be from the Fr. avaris, (forte a-varach.) Loccenius, following Boxhorn, derives the word either from the Fr. havre, or Teut. haben, a harbor. De Jur. Mar. lib. 2, c. 8, sect. 1. Other writers, as Weitsius, derive it from the Gr. Bapts, a ship. Id. ibid. Cowell inclines to derive it from the same root with the word average in old English law, which signified a service of carriage, or a service performed by carrying with horses or carts, (or cum averiis.) "This contribution seemeth to be so called," he observes, "because it is proportioned after the rate of every man's average, or goods carried." But the idea of carriage, though an important one, is quite subordinate to that of proportion, which is the principal idea involved in the meaning of average in its modern sense. It is said, however, that average has not the sense of