mediocritas

Forms

mediocritās f (genitive mediocritātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mediocris (“moderate, middling”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] De Vaan explains mediocris as a compound of medius “middle” with ocris “hilltop”, first meaning “halfway up the summit”; ocris goes back to Proto-Italic *okri- (“hilltop”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂oḱ-r-i- (“sharp edge”), with Ancient Greek ὄκρις (ókris, “point, sharp edge”) as a cognate.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Varro on.^[3] Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is moderateness of size or amount, and of means: Cicero speaks of the moderation of his own movements.^[2] It is moderateness of degree, as in Cicero's mediocritātēs illī probant.^[2] Above all it is the mean, the avoidance of extremes: Cicero urges keeping the mean between too much and too little, and praises a style that shares in both kinds through a certain middle quality.^[2][6] The Rhetorica ad Herennium has a face neither cheerful nor sad.^[2] It is also limited ability, mediocrity, as in Cicero's mediocrity in speaking, and humble station: Tacitus says the common people face fewer dangers because of the humbleness of their fortune.^[2][6] Church Latin glosses it mediocrity.^[7] English mediocrity (c. 1400) first meant moderation, an intermediate state.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the mean and of mediocrity in speaking.^[2][6][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of humble fortune.^[2][5]
• c. 1400 – English mediocrity, moderation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Moderateness of size, amount or means.^[2]
2. Moderateness of degree, moderation.^[2][6][1]
3. The mean, a middle course; an intermediate character.^[2][6][1]
4. Limited ability, mediocrity; humbleness of station.^[2][1][7]

Related words

• mediocris
• mediocriter
• medius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com