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"average" in seven languages

Meaningaverage

Spanish

media

/ˈmedja/

fem.learned

Promedio is also common, especially in Latin America.

French

moyenne

/mwajɛn/

fem.other source · French moyen 'middle', from Latin MEDIĀNUM (a derivative of MEDIUS)

Italian

media

/ˈmɛdja/

fem.learned

The inherited doublet is mezzo 'half'.

Portuguese

média

/ˈmɛdʒjɐ/

fem.learned

Romanian

medie

/ˈmedie/

fem.learned

Catalan

mitjana

/miˈdʒanə/

fem.other source · Catalan mitjà 'middle' (Latin MEDIĀNUM)

English

average

/ˈævɹɪdʒ/

other source · Middle French avarie / Italian avaria 'damage to cargo, its shared cost', probably ultimately from Arabic

English → ItalianaveragemediaNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: medium, median, mediate; mean (via Old French meien, from MEDIĀNUS).What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

MEDIUM‘middle’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

English average started out in maritime law, as the shared cost of cargo damaged at sea. The sisters simply say 'the middle', and French moyenne is the same word as English mean in the statistical sense.

English relatives: medium, median, mediate; mean (via Old French meien, from MEDIĀNUS)

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In a sentence

  • esDe media, dormimos siete horas.
  • frEn moyenne, on dort sept heures.
  • itIn media dormiamo sette ore.
  • ptEm média, dormimos sete horas.
  • roÎn medie, dormim șapte ore.
  • caDe mitjana, dormim set hores.
  • enOn average, we sleep seven hours.

More words from the same Latin

More in Numbers

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