'representativeness' originates from Latin, specifically the verb 'repraesentare', where 're-' meant 'again' or 'back' and 'praesentare' meant 'to present'.

'repraesentare' passed into Medieval Latin and Old French as forms like 'representer' and then into Middle English as 'represent', later combined with the adjective-forming suffix '-ative' and the noun-forming suffix '-ness' to yield 'representativeness' in modern English.

Initially related to the action 'to present or show again', it shifted toward the sense 'to stand for or serve as a typical example', and 'representativeness' developed to denote the quality of being typical or representative.