medium

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Compare middle. Doublet of mid, medio, media, and mediate.

noun

1. The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
2. The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
   1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, III. Century, p. 60, Whether any other Liquours, being made Mediums, cause a Diuersity of Sound from Water, it may be tried:
   He’s old and jealous, apt for suspitions, gainst which tyrants ears Are never clos’d. The Prince is young, Fierce, and ambitious, I must bring together All these extreames, and then remove all Mediums, That each may be the others object. 1642, John Denham, The Sophy, London: Thomas Walkley, act II, scene 1, page 12
3. A format for communicating or presenting information.
   Too often writing—in the broadest sense—is treated as a communicational medium where the subjects of that communication are constituted prior to the writing, where the objects of that communication are also constituted prior to that writing, and where the task of writing is seen as transparently mediating between already pregiven subjects, pregiven objects, and a preconstituted mise en scène. 2015, “Staging the Politics of Difference: Homi Bhabha's Critical Literacy, Gary A. Olson and Lynn Worsham.”, in Gary A. Olson, Lynn Worsham, Henry A. Giroux, editors, Politics of Possibility: Encountering the Radical Imagination, page 133
4. (microbiology) A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
   In some instances one can take advantage of differential carbohydrate fermentation capabilities of microorganisms by incorporating one or more carbohydrates in the medium along with a suitable pH indicator. Such media are called differential media (e.g., eosin methylene blue or MacConkey agar) and are commonly used to isolate enteric bacilli. 1996, Samuel Baron, editor, Medical Microbiology
5. (biology, horticulture etc.) A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
   The density of the living medium of fishes exerts upon them a mechanical influence; they are, so to say, balanced in water, free to proceed in all planes of direction... 1895, Bashford Dean., Fishes, Living and Fossil
6. A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
   His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post's journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former's success. 2007, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Reprint Services Corporation, page 186
7. (engineering) The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.

noun

1. A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
2. (painting) A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).
   Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.
   Heretofore in following the course, the student has been confined to black and white in the medium of charcoal, pen and ink or pencil. The first introduction to color is by means of the Still Life painting class. 1898, Report of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri, Missouri: Department of Education, page 98
   It was the woodcut, however, that emerged as the favorite graphic medium of Expressionism. Rejecting the almost limitless pictorial possibilities of lithography, which had dominated printmaking during the nineteenth century, […] 1966, John P. Sedgwick, Discovering Modern Art: The Intelligent Layman's Guide to Painting from Impressionism to Pop
   So we get a people in rebellion against a dominant majority, but forced to rebel secretly, to sublimate, as the psychologist would put it — to express themselves culturally through the medium of jaz , and linguistically through a code, a jargon ... 1967, Barnet Kottler, Martin Light, The World of Words: A Language Reader
   Prose is not the preferred medium of expressionism, yet some outstanding individual examples come to mind, for example: Robert Walser's (1876–1956) surrealistic miniatures and novels of a dreamlike structure reminiscent of Kafka […] 1974, Karl Siegfried Weimar, German Language and Literature: Seven Essays, Prentice Hall
   The Pulitzer board said the award was given “in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture.” 1999, Jet, page 29

noun

1. (countable, spiritualism) Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
2. (uncountable, especially clothing, food or drink) One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured.
3. (countable, especially clothing, food or drink) An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
4. (countable, especially with respect to clothing) One who fits an item of that size.
5. (countable, Ireland, dated, informal) A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).
6. (countable) A middle place or degree.
   a happy medium
7. (countable, dated) An average; sometimes the mathematical mean.
8. (countable, logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.

adj

1. (obsolete) Arithmetically average.
2. Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.
3. Of meat, cooked to a point greater than rare but less than well done; typically, so the meat is still red in the centre.
4. (especially clothing, food or drink) That is medium (the manufactured size).

adv

1. To a medium extent.