médiocre

Forms

médiocre (plural médiocres)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mediocris (“middling, of average size or quality, ordinary”),^[2][3][4] from medius (“in the middle”).^[2][4][1] Etymonline analyses the Latin word as a compound of this word and ocris (“jagged mountain”), literally “halfway up a mountain”.^[5] According to Bloch and Wartburg, the Latin word meant “moderate, at the right mean”, and the unfavourable sense arose only in French, around the 16th century.^[6] The noun médiocrité was borrowed earlier, in 1314, from mediocritas.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1495, in Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial, in the sense “between the great and the small”, in quantity or in quality.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was neutral: in ethics it meant “moderate, reasonable” (1552), in society “of middle rank” (1586), and in art it placed a work between the sublime and the low (about 1580).^[3] The modern, unfavourable sense “below average” grew out of judgements on art that noted a lack of genius:^[3] Montaigne wrote in 1580 of an age that produced only things bien mediocres,^[2][7] and Ronsard declared in 1587 that un poëte ne doit jamais estre médiocre “a poet must never be mediocre”.^[2][3] The sense spread to people and things in the 17th century, while the old neutral meaning was still current then.^[3][6]

Bossuet used it as a noun for people in 1658, in the plural.^[2][3] Boileau's le médiocre (1674) is a neutral term for a middle style.^[2][3] English took mediocre from French in the 1580s.^[5]

Timeline

• 1495 – Médiocre appears in Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial.^[2]
• 1542 – The adverb médiocrement is recorded.^[3]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it in the sense “below average”.^[2][3]
• 1580s – English borrows the word as mediocre.^[5]
• 1587 – Ronsard applies it to poets.^[2]
• 1658 – Bossuet uses it as a noun for people.^[2][3]
• 1674 – Boileau writes le médiocre for a middle style.^[2][3]
• 1844 – Balzac coins médiocratie.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (archaic) Of middling size, degree or quality; average.^[8][9][1]
2. Below average, inadequate in quantity or quality; poor, mediocre: un repas médiocre.^[8][2][1]
3. Of a person: of little talent, ability or intelligence.^[8][7]

Noun

1. A person of little ability or merit.^[2][8]
2. Le médiocre: that which is mediocre.^[7]

Word family

• médiocrement
• médiocriser
• médiocratie

Related words

• moyen
• Latin mediocris
• English mediocre

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse