The Rice University Neologisms Database

Etymology : From Old English “rinnan” meaning to “flow, run”, which became “randon” in Middle English, meaning speed, which in turn was used in the 1650s as “at random" to mean “carelessly”, and eventually was used in the 1980s by U.S college students to indicate inferiority or exclusiveness, someone who does not belong. This popularized the use of “random” as a noun, and is now clipped to “rando” and is utilized in the social media sphere.