Information theory borrows the term entropy from physics because its equation is analogous.

Evidence

This is also known as the “entropy” because the equation is analogous to one used to calculate entropy in physics. In general, we are interested in the total information Table 7. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2626

Categorization

• DEFINE: Etymology or, more precisely, conceptual import: entropy names total information per source symbol.
• XREF: Ties to thermodynamics and to the disorder/uncertainty notion of entropy the reader likely already knows.