guesstimaten.

1936 N.Y. Times 22 Dec. ‘Guesstimates’ is the word frequently used by the statisticians and population experts.

1943 N.Y. Times 19 July 4/6 Many Americans..think the Axis..will be defeated in less than two years. Intangibles..might make this popular ‘guestimate’ close to correct.

1948 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 52 614/2 The former is a firm figure which arises in fact. The latter is an arbitrary ‘guesstimate’.

1957 R. Watson-Watt Three Steps to Victory liii. 316 This mixture of estimates and guestimates comes out better than we deserve, for the Opana clock was very unlikely to agree with whatever clocks and watches were consulted in the aircraft and in Pearl Harbor.

1967 New Scientist 24 Aug. 373/2 Faced with engineering problems of this magnitude, £20 million is likely to prove as elusive a ‘guesstimate’ as the original figure for Concord.

1970 Daily Tel. 1 Oct. 19 (advt.) £1000 tax free clear profit... This is proved performance—not an optimistic guesstimate.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §179.5 Guesstimate, blend of ‘guess’ and ‘estimate’.

1950 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 54 175/1 50,000 lb...he had arrived at by a bit of ‘guesstimating’.

1969 Daily Tel. 31 Jan. (Colour Suppl.) 32/3 The experts can ‘guesstimate’ how much gas is there [i.e. under the North Sea], but there is no sure way of telling.

1937 D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navigator v. 152 ‘Guess-timation’ is an art in navigation which should not generally be encouraged.

1943 in Amer. Speech (1944) 19 149/2 At no time in the past has so much depended upon the correct guesstimation of the tactical requirements of the future.

1948 Elks Mag. Oct. 11 One conservative guesstimator predicts 375,000 [television] sets in the country by January 1.