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What is the etymology of the term "factor" in factor analysis?

Was it chosen to denote mathematical factoring (choosing a common divisor or the product of other values)? Or perhaps a factor in the sense of a driver of events ("the factors underlying economic inequality")? Or something more eldritch?

kjetil b halvorsen
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wes
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    Probably the [*Two-Factor theory*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_theory_of_intelligence) developed by Charles Spearman when studying human ability. – chl Nov 30 '20 at 12:33

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To quote from this page:

FACTOR and FACTOR ANALYSIS in PSYCHOMETRICS. The first factor analysis was in Charles Spearman’s “General intelligence,” objectively determined and measured American Journal of Psychology, 15, (1904), 201-293. However the term factor came later; see e.g. Spearman’s “The theory of two factors,” Psychological Review, 21, (1914), 101-. The term factor analysiscame into circulation in the 1930s. The OED quotes from “Multiple Factor Analysis,” Psychological Review, 38, (1931), 406-427 by Louis L. Thurstone: “It is the purpose of this paper to describe a more generally applicable method of factor analysis which has no restrictions as regards group factors and which does not restrict the number of general factors that are operative in producing the correlations.”

kjetil b halvorsen
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    (+1) Our indirect responses intersected. Here's another reference: [A Beginner’s Guide to Factor Analysis: Focusing on Exploratory Factor Analysis](http://www.tqmp.org/RegularArticles/vol09-2/p079/p079.pdf), by Gie Yong and Pearce, Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology 2013, Vol. 9(2), p. 79-94. – chl Nov 30 '20 at 12:34