An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. General: Leaning of the mind toward or away from something; especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment.
   Statistics: A → systematic error introduced by selecting items from a wrong population, favoring some of the elements of a population, or poorly phrasing questions.
   

2. Electronics: A → voltage applied to a device to establish a reference level for operation. Same as initial voltage, initial tension (Ger. die Vorspannung).
   In a → CCD detector, electronic → offset which prevents negative signal.
   

3a) General: To give a settled and often prejudiced outlook to.

3b) Electronics: To apply a small voltage to a device to control its operation. See also: → bias error, → bias frame, → bias offset, → bias voltage, → biased, → biased estimate, → biased galaxy formation, → biased sample, → biased statistics, → debias, → kinematic bias, → Lutz-Kelker bias, → Malmquist bias, → observational bias, → sampling bias, → unbiased, → unbiased estimator.

Etymology (EN): From M.Fr. biais “slant,” perhaps ultimately from Gk. epikarsios “slanting, oblique,” from epi- “upon” + karsios “oblique.”

Etymology (PE): Varak, from var “side, direction”

• -ak suffix denoting relation, affinity, similarity (as in dastak, poštak, pašmak, xarak, nâxonak, mušak, eynak). Note also var in yekvar “slanting, inclined”.
  
  Pištaneš, only in the electronic sense, from piš, → pre- + taneš, → tension.
  Varak dâdan, from varak + dâdan “to give,” → datum.