Definition of stats

The word "stats" is a shortened version of the term "statistics," which is itself derived from the Latin word "statisticus," meaning "pertaining to a state." In the 17th century, the first recorded use of the word "statistics" was by the German politician and scholar Gottfried Achenwall, who defined it as "the science of state affairs." The term was later popularized by the mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss, who coined the term " physics of population" to refer to the study of statistical patterns in large sets of data. Over time, the word "stats" has come to be commonly used in modern language as a shorthand term for statistical data and analyses, particularly in the context of sports and other quantitative fields.