middelmannetjie

The story

1. Dutch · derived frommiddel“middle”
2. Afrikaans · borrowed frommiddelmannetjie“little man in the middle”
3. English todaymiddelmannetjie

Borrowed from Afrikaans middelmannetjie (“little man in the middle”) (analysable as middel (“middle”) + man (“man”) + -etjie (“diminutive suffix”)), from Dutch middel (“middle”) + mannetje (“a short man”) (from man (“man”) + -etje, a variant of -tje (diminutive suffix)).