medio-, medi-
(Latin: middle)
Whenever you hear the word mediterranean, do you think of that specific place and perhaps of the great cultures that have surrounded it? You should know that the word can also apply to any large body of water that is surrounded completely or almost completely by dry land. This usage goes back to the use in Late Latin of the Latin word mediterraneus, the source of our word, as part of the name Mediterraneum mare for the mostly landlocked Mediterranean Sea.
Keep in mind that Latin mediterraneus, which is derived from medius, "the middle of, the heart of," and terra, "land", in Classical Latin actually meant "remote from the coast, inland".
In Late Latin, in referring to the sea, mediterraneus probably originally meant "in the middle of the earth" rather than "surrounded by land", because to the Mediterranean cultures without knowledge of much of the earth, the Mediterranean Sea was in the center of the world. Our word mediterranean is first recorded in English, in 1594, as the name of the sea.
The Mediterranean Sea also connects with the Black Sea through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus; and with the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.
2. Any of the varieties of paintings or drawings as determined by the material or technique used: There is a medium that utilizes any raw material or mode of expression used in an artistic or creative activity.
3. The channels of mass communication; such as newspapers, radio, television, etc.: Reporters, journalists, etc., who work for organizations engaged in such communication, use various forms of mediums.
4 Any physical material; such as, tapes, disks, paper, etc. which is used for recording or reproducing data, images, or sound: Jack looked for the best storage medium he could find and was told that CD-Rs would be best for his purpose.
5. Someone who is believed to communicate with the spirits of the dead: Jane consulted a medium, or clairvoyant, because she was hoping to get in contact with her mother who passed away the year before.
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2. Middle; intervening; such as, a mesne lord, that is, a lord who holds the land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another person, in which case he is a tenant to the superior, but lord or superior to the second grantee, and hence is called the mesne lord.
2. Surroundings; especially, of a social or cultural nature: "She appeared to have a snobbish milieu this morning."
3. Environment: "surroundings"; from French, "middle, medium, mean"; literally, "middle place", from mi, "middle" [from Latin medius] + lieu, "place".
2. The third mast from the bow in a vessel having three or more masts; the after and shorter mast of a yawl, ketch, or dandy.
2. Either of two halves into which some Native South American and Aboriginal Australian societies are divided for ritual and marriage purposes.
Marriages are forbidden within the same moiety.
3. Etymology: from Old French meitiet, from Latin medietas "half", from medius, "middle".2. Relating to or using two or more media, especially a combination apprehended by different senses; such as sight and hearing.
2. Situated toward the middle of the posterior (back) surface.
The etymologicl development of media and medium.