median

plural medians

1. archaicanatomyA central vein or nerve, especially the median vein or median nerve running through the forearm and arm.First known use 15th c.

   Why is not our jugular or throat-veine as much at our command as the mediane [translating mediane]?

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   The Greeks prescribe the median or middle vein to be opened, and so much blood to be taken away as the patient may well spare, and the cut that is made must be wide enough.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 2

2. geometryA line segment joining the vertex of triangle to the midpoint of the opposing side.
3. mathematicsA number separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, population, or probability distribution. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one (e.g., the median of {3, 3, 5, 9, 11} is 5). If there is an even number of observations, then there is no single middle value; the median is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values.First known use 19th c.
4. USThe area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic.First known use 20th c.

   Seen from street level, the median was clean most days. From the third floor you peered over the benches and trees and saw the trash crowding the subway ventilation grates and paving stones.

   2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 134

   Synonyms: median strip, central reservation, reservation

1. not comparableanatomySituated in a middle, central, or intermediate part, section, or range of (something).First known use 16th c.
2. not comparableanatomyIn the middle of an organ, structure etc.; towards the median plane of an organ or limb.First known use 16th c.

   Cellariiform, the orifices nearly confined to the convex frontal and lateral surfaces; the basal surface with a strong median calcareous keel, almost concealed by a flat membranous epitheca, which covers the whole zoarium […]

   1957, Sidney Frederic Harmer, The Polyzoa of the Siboga Expedition, page 1106

3. not comparablemathematicsHaving the median as its value.First known use 19th c.
4. not comparablemultiplicityWhose alters are less differentiated, construed as being in a grey area between singlet and multiple.

   Synonyms: midcontinuum

alternative Medean

1. not comparableRelating to Media or Medes.First known use 16th c.

   Lucullus seeing certaine Median men at armes, which were in the front of Tigranes Army, heavily and unweildily armed, as in an iron prison, apprehended thereby an opinion, that he might easily defeat them[…].

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 9, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

2. not comparableobsoleteOf laws, rules etc.: unchanging, invariable.First known use 17th–19th c.

   And if you venture to object to these Median laws, – as I am now doing, – you elicit a chorus of disapproval, and acquire some evil name.

   1856, Richard F. Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, Könemann, published 2000, page 50

   1 more example

   ‘This proceeding,’ interposed the president, ‘is by no means in accordance with the terms of the mulct or sentence, which is in its nature Median, and not to be altered or recalled.’

   1835, Edgar Allan Poe, King Pest

plural Medians · alternative Medean

1. A Mede.

alternative Medean

1. The northwestern Old Iranian language of the Medes, attested only by numerous loanwords in Old Persian, few borrowings in Old Armenian and some glosses in Ancient Greek; nothing is known of its grammar.

   Synonyms: Medic