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"middle" in seven languages

Meaningmiddle

Spanish

medio

/ˈmedjo/

masc.learned

Semi-learned: a popular form would have lost the d. En mitad de is also common.

French

milieu

/miljø/

masc.other source · French mi (Latin MEDIUM) + lieu (Latin LOCUM 'place')

Italian

mezzo

/ˈmɛddzo/

masc.inherited

Portuguese

meio

/ˈmeju/

masc.inherited

Romanian

mijloc

/ˈmiʒlok/

neut.other source · Latin MEDIUM LOCUM 'middle place'

Built like French milieu: 'middle' + 'place'.

Catalan

mig

/mitʃ/

masc.inherited

English

middle

/ˈmɪdəl/

Indo-European kin · PIE *médʰyos

Native mid and middle are distant cognates of MEDIUS.

English → ItalianmiddlemezzoDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: medium, median, medieval, mediate.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

MEDIUM‘middle’

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

The story

Italian mezzo is the regular popular outcome (DI → zz). Spanish medio stayed close to Latin, and French built milieu, the 'mid-place'.

English relatives: medium, median, medieval, mediate

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In a sentence

  • esHay un árbol en medio de la plaza.
  • frIl y a un arbre au milieu de la place.
  • itC'è un albero in mezzo alla piazza.
  • ptTem uma árvore no meio da praça.
  • roÎn mijlocul pieței este un copac.
  • caHi ha un arbre al mig de la plaça.
  • enThere's a tree in the middle of the square.

More words from the same Latin

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