middling

Etymology

It is probably formed from English mid + -ling,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} and was first recorded in Scotland, as Scots mydlyn.^[3][7][9] Weekley insists that it is not from middle but from mid and -ling,^[10] and Hoad compares Old English midlunga (“to a moderate degree”).^[5][11] Etymonline instead takes it from Middle English medlinge (“intermediate between two things”), from middle and the participial suffix -ing;^[12] the Middle English word, "coming between", appears in the Wycliffite Bible of about 1384.^[13] The revised OED derives the adjective either from the noun middling, which it traces to Old English, or from the verb middle with the suffix -ing, and compares Middle Dutch middelinc (“mediator”) and Middle Low German middelinc (“middle finger”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of medium or moderate size, strength or quality: about 1450, in a Scots manuscript, according to the OED;^[9] until the 17th century the word was chiefly Scots.^[9][6][8] Barnhart dates it to 1456, in Hay's Buke of the Law of Armys, in the sense "intermediate between two things".^[3][9] Etymonline gives the 1540s.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In trade the adjective named the second of three grades of goods, from 1550 in Scotland,^[9][12] and a Scots record of 1554 prices the midiling moutoun between the best and the worst.^[10] From that middle grade came the sense "only moderately good, mediocre, second-rate", recorded from 1652.^[12][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "of middle rank" and "of moderate size", quoting Graunt on a preacher "of middling lungs".^[14] It was used of people of moderate means from 1631,^[9] and since 1748, in Richardson's Clarissa, of health that is fair but not perfect.^[9] The adverb, "moderately, fairly", is first found in 1719, in Defoe,^[9][3][12] and the noun middlings, the medium grade of flour or meal, in 1742.^[9][7] In Scottish, Irish and English dialects middling ranged from "fair, tolerable" to "poor, bad", depending on the speaker's tone, and could mean "very inferior" with uncommon.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – of medium size, strength or quality (Scots).^[9]
• 1456 – intermediate between two things; in a manuscript of about 1485.^[9][3]
• 1550 – of goods, of the second of three grades.^[9]
• 1610 – middle-aged (rare).^[9]
• 1631 – of people of moderate means, middle-class.^[9]
• 1652 – only moderately good, mediocre.^[9][12]
• 1719 – adverb, moderately, fairly.^[9][3]
• 1742 – noun, in the plural, the medium grade of flour or meal.^[9][7]
• 1748 – in fairly good, but not perfect, health.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of medium size, degree, quality or rank; moderate: a man of middling height.^[7][9][8]
2. Neither good nor bad; mediocre, second-rate, as in fair to middling.^[8][9]
3. (informal) In fairly good health, but not well.^[9][8]
4. Falling between two extremes; intermediate.^[7][9]

Adverb

1. (informal) Moderately, fairly: The concert went middling well.^[8][7][9]

Noun

1. middlings: the medium-sized particles separated when ground grain is sifted, a by-product of flour milling used in animal feed.^[7][9]

Word family

• middlingly

Related words

• mid
• middle
• -ling

Usage notes

Wright's dialect dictionary notes that in speech the word's force depended on the tone and the adverb before it, so that it could mean anything from "fair" to "bad".^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)