middleman

Etymology

It is formed from English middle + man.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares Dutch middelman, Middle Low German middelman and Middle High German mittelman, modern German Mittelmann.^[2] The obsolete sense "girdle-maker" belongs, in the OED's revised analysis, with the noun middle in the sense of the waist.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man standing in the middle or centre of a space: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible; this sense was obsolete by the late 19th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used literally, of a man in the middle position.^[2] In 15th-century records it named a kind of workman: the 1989 edition of the OED and the Shorter Oxford took him for a worker in the making of iron wire,^[6][4] and Etymonline still does,^[3] but the revised OED explains him as a girdle-maker.^[2] In 17th-century drill a middleman was a soldier in the fifth or sixth rank of a file ten deep.^[2][4][7] The figurative sense of someone between two parties appears in 1648,^[2] and that of a person who takes a middle course in 1741 in Etymonline^[3] (1765 in the OED).^[2] In Ireland from 1780 a middleman leased a tract of land and sublet it in smaller lots at a profit.^[2] The trading sense, a dealer between the producer and the consumer, is recorded first in Burke, from before 1797,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to 1795;^[3] the OED calls it now the main use.^[2] Other specialised uses followed: in North America a paddler in the middle of a canoe (1801), in American minstrel shows the performer who led the dialogue between songs (1870), and in mountaineering the middle climber of a roped team (1892).^[2][3] The verb "to act as a middleman" is recorded from 1966.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – a man in a middle position in space (obsolete by the late 19th century).^[2]
• before 1525 – a girdle-maker (obsolete).^[2]
• 1616 – military, a soldier in the fifth or sixth rank of a file of ten (obsolete).^[2][7]
• 1648 – an intermediary between two parties.^[2]
• 1741 – a person who takes a middle course.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1765.^[2]
• 1780 – in Ireland, a person who leases land and sublets it at a higher rent.^[2]
• before 1797 – a trader who handles goods between producer and consumer, in Burke.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1795.^[3]
• 1801 – in North America, a paddler in the middle of a canoe.^[2]
• 1870 – in minstrel shows, the man in the middle of the line who leads the dialogue.^[2][3]
• 1892 – mountaineering, the middle climber of a team.^[2]
• 1966 – verb, to act as a middleman.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trader who buys goods from producers and sells them to retailers or consumers: Buying straight from the farm saves paying the middleman.^[8][7][2]
2. An intermediary or go-between who arranges dealings or negotiations between other people.^[8][7][9]
3. cut out the middleman: to deal directly, without an intermediary.^[2][8]
4. A person who takes a middle course.^[7][2]
5. (historical) In minstrel shows, the performer in the middle of the line who led the dialogue; the interlocutor.^[8][2]
6. (Canada, historical) A canoeman placed in the middle of a canoe, between the bowman and the steersman.^[10][2]
7. (obsolete, 1616–1696) A soldier in the middle ranks of a file.^[7][2]

Verb

1. (chiefly North American) To handle goods as a middleman.^[2]

Related words

• middle
• man

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press