mittel

See also: Mittel

English

Etymology

From German Mittel (14-point type).

Noun

mittel (uncountable)

  1. (printing, German contexts, dated) Synonym of English.

German

Etymology

See Mittel (median)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɪtəl/, [ˈmɪtəl], [ˈmɪtl̩]
  • (file)

Adjective

mittel (strong nominative masculine singular (dated) mitteler or mittler, comparative mittler, superlative am mittelsten)

  1. (relational, now archaic in the positive, see usage notes) middle, in the middle
    in mitt(e)ler Nacht, in mitteler Zeit, zum mittlen (Segen-)Tau
  2. (informal, predicative, invariable) average, middling
    Wie ist die Klassenarbeit gelaufen? Na ja, so mittel.
    How did the class work go? Well, so "average".
  3. (phonetics) mid
    mittlerer Vokalmid vowel

Usage notes

The positive form mittel has largely fallen out of usage in modern German, occurring mostly in compound terms such as Mittelalter, Mittelpunkt, Mittelhochdeutsch. The superlative is also uncommon. mittlerer, which originated as the comparative form, is now used in places where one would expect the positive form.

Declension

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

  • mittel” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • mittel” in Duden online
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.