medius

Borrowed from New Latin from Latin medius (“middle”). See medium. Doublet of minge and middle.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːdi.əs/

medius (plural medii)

1. (anatomy, dated) The middle finger.
   • 1876, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion:

     An analysis of the determined cases shows that the index was the digit most frequently amputated, next the medius, next the ring finger, next the thumb, and lastly the little finger

   • 1945, Charlotte Wolff, A Psychology of Gesture:

     There is an interesting abnormality in finger length, the medius being especially long […]

• “medius”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

From Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos), Sanskrit मध्य (mádhya), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬥𐬀 (maⁱδiiāna), Old Armenian մէջ (mēǰ), Persian میان (miân) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌹𐍃 (midjis).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈme.di.us/, [ˈmɛd̪iʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈme.di.us/, [ˈmɛːd̪ius]

medius (feminine media, neuter medium, comparative magis medius or medior, superlative medioximus); first/second-declension adjective

1. middle, mid, the middle of, the midst of, central, between, midway between, in the center

   media pars corporis; medium corpus ― the waist

   media nox ― midnight

   media urbs ― the middle of the city

   urbs media ― the middle city

   in mediās rēs ― into the middle of things

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.184–185:

     Nocte volat caelī mediō terraeque per umbram / strīdēns [...].

     [Rumor] flies between heaven and earth at night, shrill-sounding through the darkness.

2. half
3. moderate
4. indifferent, undecided

First/second-declension adjective.

• “medius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “medius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• medius in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• medius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the temperate zone: orbis medius
    
  • to rush into the midst of the foe: in medios hostes se inicere
    
  • to break through the enemy's centre: per medios hostes (mediam hostium aciem) perrumpere
    
  • (ambiguous) the Mediterranean Sea: mare medium or internum
    
  • (ambiguous) the middle ages: media quae vocatur aetas
    
  • (ambiguous) manhood: aetas constans, media, firmata, corroborata (not virilis)
    
  • (ambiguous) to become known, become a topic of common conversation (used of things): foras efferri, palam fieri, percrebrescere, divulgari, in medium proferri, exire, emanare
    
  • (ambiguous) elevated, moderate, plain style: genus dicendi grave or grande, medium, tenue (cf. Or. 5. 20; 6. 21)
    
  • (ambiguous) to bring a subject forward into discussion: in medium proferre aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to break off in the middle of the conversation: medium sermonem abrumpere (Verg. Aen. 4. 388)
    
  • (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to be neutral: medium se gerere
    
  • (ambiguous) the centre of the marching column: agmen medium (Liv. 10. 41)
    
  • (ambiguous) the centre: media acies
    
• “medius”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray