media English · revision 2512

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1923|origins=la medius}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈmiː.di.ə/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|media]], the plural of [[m|la|medium|t=the middle; a means]], used as the plural of English [[medium]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) from [[m|la|medius|t=middle]].^(AHD 2000)^(Klein 1966) It is related to [[mid]], [[middle]], [[mediate]], [[median]] and [[immediate]].^(Klein 1966)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The plural of ''medium'' in the sense “an intermediate agency, a channel”, a sense first found in Bacon (1605), is first recorded in Cornelius Felton's ''Greece, Ancient and Modern'' (1866).^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “the means of mass communication”, such as newspapers, radio and television, appears in 1923 as a technical term in advertising, ''mass media'',^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(HTOED) and ''media'' on its own, used as a singular, is American, from 1927.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1605 – ''medium'', a channel (Bacon).^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1866 – plural ''media''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1923 – ''mass media''.^(Barnhart 1988)^(HTOED)

+ * 1927 – ''media'', the press and broadcasting.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The main means of mass communication, such as newspapers, radio, television and the Internet.^(SOED 2002)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ # The plural of [[medium]], as in the materials or techniques of an artist.^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[medial]]

+ * [[hypermedia]]

+ * [[intermedia]]

+ * [[mediacy]]

+ * [[mediagenic]]

+ * [[multimedia]]

+ * [[media center]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[medium]]

+ * [[mid]]

+ * [[middle]]

+ * [[mediate]]

+ * [[median]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A separate word ''media'', from the feminine of Latin ''medius'' used on its own, is a term in anatomy for the middle layer of the wall of a blood vessel (1876) and in older phonetics for a voiced stop consonant (1841).^(HTOED)^(SOED 2002)^(Klein 1966)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}