medius
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from New Latin from Latin medius (“middle”). See medium. Doublet of minge and middle.
NounEdit
medius (plural medii)
- (anatomy) The middle finger; the third digit, or that which corresponds to it.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for medius in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
LatinEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos), Sanskrit मध्य (mádhya), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬥𐬀 (maiδiiāna), Old Armenian մէջ (mēǰ), Persian میان (miân) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌹𐍃 (midjis).
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
medius (feminine media, neuter medium, comparative magis medius or medior, superlative medioximus); first/second-declension adjective
- middle, mid
- media pars corporis; medium corpus ― the waist
- media nox ― midnight
- media urbs ― the middle of the city
- urbs media ― the middle city
- in mediās rēs ― into the middle of things
- half
- moderate
- indifferent, undecided
DeclensionEdit
First/second-declension adjective.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | medius | media | medium | mediī | mediae | media | |
Genitive | mediī | mediae | mediī | mediōrum | mediārum | mediōrum | |
Dative | mediō | mediō | mediīs | ||||
Accusative | medium | mediam | medium | mediōs | mediās | media | |
Ablative | mediō | mediā | mediō | mediīs | |||
Vocative | medie | media | medium | mediī | mediae | media |
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Aragonese: medio; media (“sock”), meyo, micho; meya (“sock”)
- Aromanian: njedz, njedzu
- → Asturian: mediu, → midiu; → media (“sock; measure”)
- Catalan: mig
- Dalmatian: mesu
- → English: medius; → media
- French: mi-
- Friulian: mieç, mieğ
- → Italian: medio; → media
- → Sardinian: media
- Italian: mezzo
- Neapolitan: miezzo, mienzo
- → Sardinian: mezu
- Occitan: mièg, miei
- Old Portuguese: meio
- Portuguese: meio
- Old Spanish: meo
- → Portuguese: médio, → média
- → Romanian: mediu; → medie, miez
- Romansch: mez, miez
- Sardinian: meiu; ⇒ mesu (crossed with mēnsus)
- Sicilian: mezzu, menzu
- → Spanish: medio; → media
- → Sardinian: mediu
- Venetian: mezo, mexo, miso
ReferencesEdit
- “medius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “medius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- medius in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- medius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- the temperate zone: orbis medius
- to rush into the midst of the foe: in medios hostes se inicere
- to break through the enemy's centre: per medios hostes (mediam hostium aciem) perrumpere
- (ambiguous) the Mediterranean Sea: mare medium or internum
- (ambiguous) the middle ages: media quae vocatur aetas
- (ambiguous) manhood: aetas constans, media, firmata, corroborata (not virilis)
- (ambiguous) to become known, become a topic of common conversation (used of things): foras efferri, palam fieri, percrebrescere, divulgari, in medium proferri, exire, emanare
- (ambiguous) elevated, moderate, plain style: genus dicendi grave or grande, medium, tenue (cf. Or. 5. 20; 6. 21)
- (ambiguous) to bring a subject forward into discussion: in medium proferre aliquid
- (ambiguous) to break off in the middle of the conversation: medium sermonem abrumpere (Verg. Aen. 4. 388)
- (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium esse
- (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium se gerere
- (ambiguous) the centre of the marching column: agmen medium (Liv. 10. 41)
- (ambiguous) the centre: media acies
- the temperate zone: orbis medius
- “medius”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray