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  1. To wit, what's "Sensitive" about True Positive Rates, and "Specific" about True Negative Rates?

  2. Why weren't these Metaphors or Imports reversed? Why wasn't "Sensitive" termed to signify True Negative Rates, and "Specific" True Positive Rates instead?

I learn best visually. Can these graphs on Wikipedia answer my questions?

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    this is not really a history question, but sensitive means that the test will likely pick up the true positives (the test is sensitive to the true positives and likely will not miss them), whereas specific means that those who test positive likely are true positives (the test is specific to true positives as opposed to being positive for others as well) – J. W. Tanner Aug 19 '21 at 00:24
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    I think it's history because the question is why did those choosing the terms choose those. If it can be answered, of course. – Mary Aug 19 '21 at 03:06

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