This week’s theme
Forgotten positives

This week’s words
capacitate
eptitude
mediate
maculate
nocent

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(adj.: MEE-dee-uht, verb: -ayt)

MEANING:

adjective:	1. Involving an intervening agency; not direct or immediate.
	2. Being in a middle position.
verb tr., intr.:	1. To act as an intermediary to resolve a conflict, bring about a solution, etc.
	2. To divide into two parts.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin mediare (to be in the middle), from Latin medius (middle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root medhyo- (middle), which also gave us middle, mean, medium, medal (originally a coin worth a halfpenny), mezzanine, mediocre, mediterranean, moiety, and mullion. Earliest documented use: 1440.

USAGE:

“[James Wilson] supported the direct election of the office, but had to settle for the mediate election of the president by offering the compromise electoral college system.”
Lawrence J. DeNardis; The Electoral College; New Haven Register (Connecticut); Dec 4, 2016.

“Though it was a very muffled love, mediated as it was through the screen and the keyboard.”
Elizabeth Cohen; The Hypothetical Girl; Other Press; 2013.

See more usage examples of mediate in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: