mediocrity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mediocrite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin mediocritās (“a middle state, moderation”),^[5][3][2] perhaps partly through Middle French médiocrité;^[6][4][7][8] the OED compares the French word, recorded from 1314.^[5] The Latin noun is from mediocris (“of middling height or state, moderate, ordinary”), the source of mediocre.^[5][3][7] Ayto explains mediocris as "halfway up a mountain", formed from medius (“middle”), the source of medium, and ocris (“rough stony mountain”).^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medium size: in a translation of the Secreta Secretorum of about 1400, a sense now obsolete.^[5] Etymonline gives "moderation; intermediate state or amount", from about 1400,^[3] and the MED's quotations, from a translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery of before 1425, speak of keeping a mediocrity, a moderation.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Latin, mediocris and mediocritās had three main areas of meaning: a middle degree, moderation, and middle social rank, and all three passed into the English word: an intermediate state (from 1510), moderation of conduct (before 1425 to 1774) and moderate fortune in life (before 1500 to 1878).^[5] The word was neutral at first, and an older name for the golden mean was golden mediocrity.^[3] Although Latin mediocritās could already imply inferiority,^[5] the disparaging sense, average or poor ability, appears in English in 1588^[5] and began to prevail from the late 16th century;^[3] in French médiocrité is not used disparagingly until the early 17th century.^[5] Johnson (1755) still listed "small degree; middle rate; middle state" first, quoting Bacon.^[10] The sense "a person of mediocre ability" dates from 1694, in Congreve's The Double-Dealer.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – medium size (obsolete by 1841).^[5]
• before 1425 – moderation, temperance (obsolete by 1774).^[5][2]
• before 1500 – moderate fortune or condition in life (obsolete by 1878).^[5]
• c. 1510 – an intermediate state between two extremes.^[5][6]
• 1588 – average or poor ability, the quality of being mediocre.^[5]
• 1694 – a person of mediocre ability.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being mediocre; ordinary or poor quality or ability: Critics complained about the mediocrity of the new season.^[11][5]
2. A person of ordinary or poor ability: The committee was filled with mediocrities.^[11][5][8]
3. (archaic) A state halfway between two extremes; moderation.^[6][5][8]
4. (obsolete) Moderate fortune or condition in life.^[5][8]

Word family

• mediocritize
• mediocritization

Related words

• mean
• median
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• mediocre
• medium

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins