Where does “mediocrity” come from?
Mediocrity comes from Middle French médiocrité, from Latin mediocritas, derived from Latin mediocris meaning of middle quality, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European médʰyos meaning middle.
mediocrity (English): The quality of being intermediate between two...
Definitions
- The quality of being intermediate between two...
Ancestry of “mediocrity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | médiocrité | — |
| 2 | Latin | mediocritās | a middle state |
| 3 | Latin | mediocris | middling, moderate, medium; tolerable, ordinary,... |
| 4 | Latin | medius | middle; half; moderate |
| 5 | Latin | locus | place, spot; a passage of literature; "in the... |
| 6 | Old Latin | stlocus | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | stlokos | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | stel- | to put, to place; to locate |