# middling
## English
### Etymology

The noun is probably from middle (noun) +‎ -ing; the adjective is most likely derived from the noun, and the adverb from the adjective.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/, /ˈmɪdl̩ɪŋ/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmɪd(ə)lɪŋ/
* Hyphenation: mid‧dl‧ing

### Adjective

middling (comparative more middling, superlative most middling)
* Of intermediate or average size, position, or quality; mediocre.
    The football team is never the worst or best in its league; its position is always middling.
** 1700 February, Thomas Molyneux, “II. An Essay Concerning Giants. Occasioned by Some Further Remarks on the Large Humane Os Frontis, or Forehead-bone, Mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions of February 168$^4$$_5$, Number 168.”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XXII, number 261, London: Printed by S. Smith and B. Walford, printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard, published 1702, →OCLC, page 501:[…] I cannot think it unreaſonable, […] to imagin the ſame natural cauſes may ſometimes act in t'other extreme likewiſe, and model Humane Bodies from a peculiar Energy in the ſeminal Principles, or a more perfect and through concoction in the Stomach, and other Viſcera, whence may proceed a peculiar and extraordinary nutritive faculty in the humours, for the furthering augmentation; or ſtill from ſome other more latent Spring, or ſecret Influence, to ariſe to ſuch a growth as fully to equal twice the heighth of (what we may then properly call) a middling ſtature, taking the word in the moſt ſtrict ſenſe.
** 1783 July, “Foreign Literature. France. Art. XIV.”, in [Ralph Griffiths], editor, The Monthly Review; Or, Literary Journal, volume LXIX, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, No. 82, Pall Mall, →OCLC, page 61:Had it [De le Maniere d'écrire l'Histoire (Concerning the Manner of Writing History, 1783) by Gabriel Bonnot de Mably] appeared ſooner, and been peruſed by with docility by ſome of our minor adventurers in this walk of literature, it might have had a good effect, by ſhewing them, that it is not ſo eaſy a matter as they think to write hiſtory, though the moſt middling genius may fling facts, dawb characters, and copy tales and truths promiſcuouſly.
** 1853 January 1, “Parallel Passages”, in E[liakim] Littell, editor, Littell’s Living Age, volume XXXVI, number 450, Boston, Mass.: E. Littell & Son, →OCLC, page 29, column 2:All this is undoubtedly compatible with mediocrity, like every other profession; one can also be a middling poet, a middling orator, a middling author; but this done with genius is sublime.
** 1946, V[ictor] S[awdon] Pritchett, “Clarissa”, in The Living Novel, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947, →OCLC, page 24:Yet there he [Samuel Richardson] is, plump, prosaic, the most middling of middling men, and so domestically fussy that even his gift of weeping hardly guarantees that he will be a major figure.
** 2012, Miriam L. Wallace, A. A. Markley, “Introduction”, in Miriam L. Wallane, A. A. Markley, editors, Re-viewing Thomas Holcroft, 1745–1809: Essays on His Works and Life (British Literature in Context in the Long Eighteenth Century), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, →ISBN, page 5:Rather, [Thomas] Holcroft uses his experiences as fooder while claiming the status of an "author" just as more middling writers did.
** 2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 25 March 2014:The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but [Ice Age:] Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that's already been settled.
* (colloquial, regional British) In fairly good health.
** 1728 September 18, [Jonathan] Swift, “[Letters on Several Occasions.] Letter XXIII. To the Same [Dr. Thomas Sheridan].”, in Miscellanies, 4th edition, volume XIII, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-mall, published 1751, →OCLC, page 125:I am in a middling Way, between Healthy and Sick, hardly ever without a little Giddineſs or Deafneſs, and ſometimes both: So much for that.
** 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 200:“And how’s that chest of yours?” demanded Mrs. Morel. / He smiled again, with his blue eyes rather sunny. / “Oh, it’s very middlin’,” he said.

#### Synonyms

* (intermediate or average in size, position, or quality): average, medium, unexceptional

#### Derived terms

* fair to middling
* middlings
* middling sort
* middling plantation

#### Translations
### Adverb

middling (comparative more middling, superlative most middling)
* (colloquial, regional British) Fairly, moderately, somewhat.
** 1785, Joseph Strutt, “HENRY GOLTZIUS”, in A Biographical Dictionary; Containing an Historical Account of All the Engravers, from the Earliest Period of the Art of Engraving to the Present Time; and a Short List of Their Most Esteemed Works. [...], volume I, London: Printed by J. Davis, for Robert Faulder, New Bond Street, →OCLC, page 343:St. Jerom ſeated, a middling ſized upright plate, from J. Palma, dated 1596. I think this is one of the fineſt prints by this great maſter. The drawing is admirable, and the engraving is executed with the utmoſt freedom.
** 1811, Engelbert Kempfer [i.e., Engelbert Kaempfer]; J[ohann] G[aspar] Scheuchzer, transl., “The Division and Sub-division of the Empire of Japan into Its Several Provinces; as also of Its Revenue and Government”, in The History of Japan; republished in John Pinkerton, editor, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World; Many of which are Now First Translated into English. Digested on a New Plan, volume VII, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row; and Cadell and Davies, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 665:
    Iwami, otherwise Sekisju, is two days journey long, going from ſouth to north, a middling good country, producing plenty of cannib, and affording ſome ſalt.
* (colloquial, regional British) Not too badly, with modest success.

### Noun

middling (plural middlings)
* Something of intermediate or average size, position, or quality.
** 2014, Annachiara Longoni, “Organisational Responsibility and Worker Commitment: The Definition and Implementation of Sustainable Operations Strategies”, in Sustainable Operations Strategies: The Impact of Human Resource Management and Organisational Practices on the Triple Bottom Line (Springer Briefs in Applied Sciences and Technology; PoliMI SpringerBriefs), Cham, Switzerland: Springer, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 21:Middlings are less likely to adopt worker commitment than are Leaders, but the two groups are equally likely to adopt organisational responsibility. […] Middlings have not been able to effectively implement innovative environmental programmes and proactive social programmes.
** (in the plural) Preceded by the: people of moderate means; members of the middle class.
*** 2014, Ed White, “The Shays Rebellion in Literary History”, in Andrew Lawson, editor, Class and the Making of American Literature: Created Unequal (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature; 24), New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 70:The war had been significantly financed by the poor and the middling, who purchased bonds that quickly devalued from wartime inflation; debt speculators had bought much of this debt at a fraction of the original cost.

### Further reading

* Michael Quinion (created May 26, 2001, last updated October 1, 2016) “Fair to middling”, in World Wide Words.