The term "distribution" is commonly associated with statistics and, less commonly known, to generalized functions.


**Questions:** 


* what is known about the origin of the term in the two fields?
* are the terms related in some sense i.e. were the distributions in the context of generalized functions inspired by the distributions of statistics or is the one an analogue or generalization of the other?



What are the Reasons for the Ambiguous Meaning of "Distribution" in Mathematics
The name "distributions" for generalized functions is explained by Laurent Schwartz in his autobiography "A Mathematician Grappling with His Century", p. 238 : he chose the name "Because, if $\mu$ is a measure, i.e. a particular kind of distribution, it can be considered as a distribution of electric charges in the universe. Distributions give more general types of electric charges, for example dipoles and magnetic distributions (...)".


