intermediary

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from French intermédiaire,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded in French from 1678,^[8] which the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take from Italian intermediario,^[5][6] from Latin intermedius (“lying between”).^[2][7][5][9] The OED instead starts from a type Medieval Latin *intermediārius, from intermedium, and treats the French word as perhaps the immediate source;^[8] Dictionary.com likewise forms it from the Late Latin noun, an intervening place, and the suffix -ary.^[10] It is formed from Latin inter- (“between”) + medius (“middle”),^[2][7] from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”).^[7][2] It is related to intermediate, medium and mediate.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, situated or occurring between two things, intermediate: 1788, in the New London Magazine.^[8][3] Etymonline dates this sense to 1757.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense of acting between two persons or parties, as a means of dealing between them, followed in 1818, in Hallam,^[8][7] and the noun, a person who acts between others, a go-between or middleman, in 1791, in a letter of Gouverneur Morris.^[8][3][7] Medieval Latin intermedium had also been used as a noun.^[7] From 1859 the noun could mean a thing that serves as a medium or means,^[8] and after 1865 an intermediate form or stage.^[8][3] An older English adjective with the same meaning was intermedial (1590s).^[7]

Timeline

• 1788 – adjective, situated between two things.^[8][3] Etymonline dates the adjective to 1757.^[7]
• 1791 – noun, a go-between, a mediator.^[8][3][7]
• 1818 – adjective, acting between persons or parties.^[8][7]
• 1859 – noun, a medium or means.^[8]
• 1865 – noun, an intermediate form or stage.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who acts between two parties, as a mediator, agent or go-between: The talks were held through an intermediary.^[11][3][8]
2. Something that serves as a medium or means.^[11][3][8]
3. An intermediate form, stage or product.^[3][8]

Adjective

1. Acting between others; mediatory.^[11][3][8]
2. Situated or occurring between two things; intermediate.^[11][3][8]

Related words

• intermediate
• medium
• mediate
• intermedial

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes Fowler's advice that the noun, even in the concrete sense of go-between or middleman, should be viewed with suspicion and used only when every more ordinary word falls short.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins