Some gentle notes for the mean season
This column is not about the presidential election. But its topic may sound a bit Bill Clintonesque: what the meaning of mean is.
This multi-definitional little word came up in the newsroom the other day and prompted some research: How did an adjective rooted in ideas of 鈥渃ommon鈥� and 鈥渇air to middling鈥� or 鈥渁verage鈥� morph into a colloquial substitute for 鈥渧icious鈥� or 鈥渃ruel鈥�? (鈥淢ommy, Jacob is being mean to me!鈥�)聽
The Oxford English Dictionary has two main entries for mean as an adjective. 鈥淢ean, adj. 1鈥� comes from an Old English word signifying 鈥減ossessed jointl测.鈥澛�
That sense continued until at least 1900, in the phrase 鈥渋n mean鈥� 鈥� a field 鈥渉eld in mean鈥� by several owners, for instance. Today we鈥檇 say 鈥渋n common.鈥� Common, from Latin, covers much the same territory as this mean.听
Over time, though, mean picked up a raft of negative meanings 鈥� inferiority, lowliness, shabbiness, and stinginess, as well as cruelty. Martin Scorsese鈥檚 1973 film 鈥�,鈥� for instance, seems to have captured almost all of these attributes in its title.
Oxford鈥檚 鈥渕ean, adj. 2鈥� came into English via French. Its natural home seems to be among mathematical and logical concepts of 鈥渋ntermediate,鈥� 鈥渋n between鈥� and 鈥渕oderation,鈥� as well as 鈥渁verage鈥� (鈥渕ean temperature鈥�).听
is a linguist鈥檚 term for the shifts in meaning that words undergo over time.听
As jointly held property came to be disdained in favor of something more 鈥渆xclusive,鈥� Mean 1 picked up connotations of inferiority. When being merely 鈥渁verage鈥� ceased to be good enough, Mean 2 became a term of disparagement as well.
But because the two words looked identical, people began to see them as the same word, never mind their very different derivations. To quote Oxford on this point: 鈥淸T]he truth is probably that the meanings of two originally quite distinct words have merged.鈥澛�
Mean 2 gives us meantime, literally 鈥渢he time between鈥� one event and another, and also meanwhile, a synonym with an additional sense of 鈥渁t the same time,鈥� with a whiff of 鈥渙n the other hand.鈥澛�
This makes 鈥渕eanwhile鈥� a journalist鈥檚 go-to transition word to connect disparate chunks of material that seem hard to fit together gracefully in a story. 鈥淐amp A is doing x. Meanwhile, Camp B is doing 测.鈥� As long as the two events are happening at the same time, they can be skewered together, like a complicated deli sandwich held together by a giant toothpick, with that single word meanwhile.
Oxford also lists something called the mean space.听
And then there鈥檚 in the mean season. It鈥檚 apparently another variation on 鈥渕eantime.鈥� But it strikes me as a perfect word for this 鈥渢ime between鈥� high summer and the full arrival of the fall.听
It鈥檚 after Labor Day; the students are back in school. A sweater in the evening no longer seems quite so ridiculous. But the days are still a bit longer than the nights, and I鈥檓 not quite ready to give up on summer.听
