Etymology

Noun

1. A person with deviant behaviour; a deviant, degenerate or pervert.
   • 1915: James Cornelius Wilson, A Handbook of medical diagnosis http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC56783761&id=4B7nMfNnIZkC&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&dq=%22a+deviate%22&as_brr=1

     ...Walton has suggested that it is desirable "to name the phenomena signs of deviation, and call their possessors deviates or a deviate as the case may be...

   • 1959: Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, Kurt W. Back, Social Pressures in Informal Groups: A Study of Human Factors in Housing http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00181184&id=J24AAAAAMAAJ&q=%22a+deviate%22&dq=%22a+deviate%22&pgis=1

     Under these conditions the person who appears as a deviate is a deviate only because we have chosen, somewhat arbitrarily, to call him a member of the court ...

   • 2001: Rupert Brown, Group Processes http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0631184961&id=e-9OtYRo45cC&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=%22a+deviate%22&sig=GsTXt6FCAxGzfu9Z1Y5DBjGXb-0

     ...The second confederate was also to be a deviate initially...

2. A value equal to the difference between a measured variable factor and a fixed or algorithmic reference value.
   • 1928: Karl J. Holzinger, Statistical Methods for Students in Education http://books.google.com/books?vid=LCCN28006559&id=sKTVf2R9QcQC&q=%22a+deviate%22&dq=%22a+deviate%22&pgis=1

     It will be noted that for a deviate x = 1.5, the ordinate z will have the value .130...

   • 2001: Sanjeev B. Sarmukaddam, Indrayan Indrayan, Abhaya Indrayan, Medical Biostatistics http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0824704266&id=DHkXkXhpryAC&pg=RA20-PA279&lpg=RA20-PA279&dq=%22a+deviate%22&sig=V0CUzyD7DlXKCm_ehD84Trl8J5g

     This difference is called a deviate. When a deviate is divided by its SD a, it is called a relative deviate or a standard deviate.

   • 2005: Michael J. Crawley, Statistics: An Introduction Using R http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0470022973&id=czbzO5iD1Z0C&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%22a+deviate%22&sig=-Erqbq87cIuqSaSOjXqw7Edaabo

     This is a deviate so the appropriate function is qt. We need to supply it with the probability (in this case p = 0.975) and the degrees of freedom...

Verb

1. To go off course from; to change course; to change plans.

   He's deviating from the course. Follow him!

2. To fall outside of, or part from, some norm; to stray.

   His exhibition of nude paintings deviated from local censorship norms.