intermediateadj.n.
/ɪntəˈmiːdɪət/ A. adj.
1. Coming or occurring between two things, places, etc.; ‘holding the middle place or degree between two extremes’ (Johnson); interposed, intervening.
a. in spatial position: Situated in the middle place, or between two things or places.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [adjective]
middlea1200
mean1340
mediate?1440
intercedent1578
interjacent1594
intermedial1599
intermiddle1613
intervenient1626
intervalling1632
intermediate1646
intervening1646
mediatory1650
intercurrent1656
intermedious1678
intermediant1716
intercepting1826
mediant1853
intermediary1875
interferent1876
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. xix. 154 The two extremes would sufficiently performe the office of sight without the help of the intermediate eyes. View more context for this quotation
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 64 All the intermediate points between F and D.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 179. ⁋6 The intermediate Spaces are filled up with large Sashes.
1828 J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. II. 163 Four antennæ, the intermediate two short.
1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockmakers' Handbk. (new ed.) 124 Intermediate Wheel, a toothed wheel used to connect two others.
b. Occurring or coming between two points of time or events. intermediate state (Theology), the condition of souls after death and before resurrection; hence, Hades or the place of departed spirits.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > [adjective] > intervening
middlea1200
meana1382
interloping1603
interim1604
intercurrent1611
odd1618
intermediate1623
intervenient1629
intermedian1656
interveninga1781
interstitial1841
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [adjective] > interposed or intervening
incurrent1570
intercurring1611
intermediate1623
parenthetical1624
intersilient1647
parenthetica1849
mediateda1859
1623 H. Cockeram Eng. Dict. Intermediate speech, a thing spoken betwixt.
a1716 R. South 12 Serm. (1717) V. 126 There was no Vacancy, or intermediate Chasm of Time, between the Arian Poyson ceasing, and the Popish Ferment beginning to infest the Church.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 350 He fixes all the most remarkable intermediate Events.
1777 J. Priestley Disquis. Matter & Spirit xvii. 232 The doctrine of an intermediate state is now retained by few.
1827 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth I. 21 How idle are all disquisitions on the intermediate state, founded on the assumption that the soul when out of the body has no perceptions.
1858 E. H. Sears Athanasia ii. iv. 199 He did not tarry with them during the intermediate time.
c. in serial order, e.g. of numbers, or in logical or causal succession.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > middle > [adjective]
middleeOE
midmosteOE
mid1273
mean1340
middlemosta1400
mediate?1440
moyen1481
median1592
intermedial1599
intermediate1648
mede1706
intermediary1788
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [adjective] > of sets > of sequences > series
intermediate1648
converging1728
convergent1816
zeroth1850
tactical1864
oscillatory1893
termwise1903
sociable1964
1648 Bp. J. Wilkins Math. Magick i. iv. 24 And in the like manner are we to conceive of the other intermediate divisions.
1790 W. Paley Horæ Paulinæ (1849) i. 5 The intermediate steps through which the conclusion is deduced.
1821 J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. (1871) iii. 75 The intermediate measures were different.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 8 The intermediate links which occur..in the passage from unity to infinity.
d. in amount, degree, rank, nature, or character. Formerly applied to a class of passenger accommodation in steam ships, intermediate between ‘saloon’ and ‘steerage’; now superseded by ‘second class’. Also intermediate education, intermediate school.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [adjective]
evenc1300
mean1340
middlingc1485
intermediate1665
half-way1694
middle1699
medium1764
average1770
median1912
middle-range1924
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 58 The two principal colours, Scarlet and Blue, and all the intermediate ones which arise from the composition and dilutings of these two.
1720 R. Welton tr. T. Alvares de Andrade Sufferings Son of God I. ix. 217 'Twas determined..there should be something Intermediate and Woven, in the Corporeal and Spiritual Nature of Man, of a Third Sort.
1823 J. D. Hunter Mem. Captivity 7 A squaw of an intermediate stature.
1842 E. Lazarus Let. 19 July in N. E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 278 There are the primary & the intermediate schools, & the high-school.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. i. 228 The vibrations which excite the other colours are intermediate between these two extremes.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 90 That middle state..intermediate between aristocracy and oligarchy.
1882 W. D. Hay Brighter Britain! I. ii. 57 It doesn't matter twopence how you go out, whether saloon, intermediate, or steerage, so far as your future prospects are concerned.
1888 R. Kipling Arrest Lt. Golightly in Plain Tales from Hills 120 The four constables saw him safe to Umritsar in an ‘intermediate’ compartment.
1889 Act 52 & 54 Vict. c. 40 (title) An Act to promote Intermediate Education in Wales..sect. 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889.
1889 Act 52 & 54 Vict. c. 40 sect. 17 The expression ‘intermediate education’ means a course of education which does not consist chiefly of elementary instruction..but which includes instruction in Latin, Greek, the Welsh and English language and literature,..mathematics, natural and applied science.
1893 Harper's Mag. Apr. 806 Oh, she was a rose half-budded, in the intermediate school, And her face and form I studied twice as much as task or rule.
1945 C. V. Good Dict. Educ. 223 Intermediate school: a school that enrolls pupils in intermediate grades, usually comprising the fourth, fifth, and sixth years of schoolwork.
1974 Times 1 Apr. (Yorkshire & Humberside Suppl.) p. i/2 Yorkshire and Humberside is classified as an ‘intermediate area’. As such, while enjoying the benefits of financial inducements available to incoming and expanding industry, it does not rank for the benefits available in the other two types of aided regions.
e. in position or function: Intervening between persons or parties.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > acting as intermediate agent > specifically of person
mediate1571–2
middling1631
intermediating1694
mesne1812
intermediate1855
1783 E. Burke Rep. Affairs India in Wks. (1819) XI. 87 The Company might suffer above, the Natives might suffer below; the intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of both.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xx. 426 How much of it was embezzled by intermediate agents.
f. Geology. = interlobate adj.
ΚΠ
1883 T. C. Chamberlin in 3rd Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. 1881–2 313 Forming a peculiar morainic type, to which the term intermediate or interlobate moraines will be applied.
g. Forestry. Having the crown shaded at the sides but open to the light at the top.
ΚΠ
1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 14
2. Specific technical uses.
a. Geology. Of a rock: having a silicate content that falls between that of the acidic and that of the basic rocks (cf. acidic adj. 1b, basic adj. 2b); often spec. having a silicate content between 52 and 66 per cent by weight.
ΚΠ
1888 J. J. H. Teall Brit. Petrogr. viii. 253 The basic rocks shade into the intermediate rocks, and these again into the acid rocks, in the most gradual manner.
1892 F. H. Hatch Text-bk. Petrol. (ed. 2) vi. 107 In respect to the percentage of silica, igneous rocks fall naturally into four groups, viz.:—(1) An acid group with 65–80% of silica... (2) An intermediate group with 55–70% of silica... (3) A basic group with 45–60% of silica... (4) An ultrabasic group with silica between 35 and 50%.
1909 F. H. Hatch Text-bk. Petrol. (ed. 5) iii. i. 152 Arranged in the order of their silica contents, the plutonic rocks can be divided into three groups: 1. Acid, with silica contents above 66 per cent. 2. Intermediate, with silica contents between 66 and 52 per cent; and 3. Basic, with silica contents below 52.
1939 A. Johannsen Descr. Petrogr. Igneous Rocks (ed. 2) I. 181 (gloss.) Intermediate rocks, rocks intermediate between the ‘acid’ and ‘basic’ groups. Syn. Neutral rocks, medio~silicic. Cf. Acid.
1968 B. Bayly Introd. Petrol. vi. 53 The second system is chemical rather than mineralogical, being based on the weight percentage of SiO2 in the rock; thus if SiO2 percentage is: over 66, rock is acid; 52–66, rock is intermediate; 45–52, rock is basic; under 45, rock is ultrabasic.
b. Nuclear Physics. Applied to neutrons with less energy than fast neutrons but more than thermal neutrons, and also to nuclear reactors in which such neutrons are the chief cause of fission.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > nuclear fission > nuclear reactor > [adjective] > having or using less energy
intermediate1947
1947 Rep. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission A-4315 (title) A multi-group method for computing critical masses of intermediate piles.
1949 Nucleonics Dec. 41/1 Intermediate piles may operate with neutrons at any energy level between thermal and fission or even at several different energy levels.
1956 S. Glasstone Princ. Nucl. Reactor Engin. i. 15 In nuclear reactor work, the term fast neutrons is applied to neutrons having energies of about 0·1 Mev, i.e., 105 ev, or more. Those with energies from 105 ev down to 1 ev are called intermediate neutrons.
1959 L. F. Curtiss Introd. Neutron Physics i. 18 Less information has been accumulated about intermediate neutrons than about neutrons of lower energies because of [the] difficulty of finding efficient detectors.
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XI. 358/1 An example of an intermediate reactor is the first propulsion reactor for the submarine USS Seawolf. The fuel core consisted of enriched uranium with beryllium as a moderator.
B. n.
1.
a. Something intermediate or intervening (in position, time, succession, degree, or character); a middle term; a nexus between two things.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [noun] > that which is interjacent
meana1400
moyen1483
umpire1605
intermedium1611
intermediate1650
middle1665
between-lier1674
borderland1821
border-ground1871
border-world1878
grey zone1900
twilight zone1909
grey area1935
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [noun] > mean
middlingOE
middlelOE
meanc1450
neutralityc1475
moyen1484
temper?1523
mediety1573
medium1593
temperature1598
temperament1604
intermedial1605
median1635
intermediate1650
average1737
middle term1754
mesne1821
intermediacy1836
intermediary1865
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > middle > [noun] > intermediate thing
intermediate1650
intervention1676
1650 C. Elderfield Civil Right Tythes 339 My eye upon the main, diverts and takes me off from..giving all I think of the intermediates.
1792 T. Taylor in tr. Proclus Philos. & Math. Comm. (new ed.) I. Dissert. 71 Infinite intermediates cannot intervene between two finite terms.
a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 217 The association or dissociation of colours with or without those intermediates of compound, half, or broken colour.
1809–10 S. T. Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 123 By no intermediate could they be preserved in lasting adhesion.
1870 J. D. Hooker Student's Flora Brit. Islands 120 All the so-called species are connected by intermediates.
b. Mathematics. A syzygetic function of two quantics of the same order.
ΚΠ
1858 Cayley in Math. Papers (1889) II. 515.
c. Chemistry and Biochemistry. A compound which after being produced by one reaction participates in another; esp. one manufactured from naturally occurring materials for use in the synthesis of dyes, plastics, or other substances.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > substances involved in > intermediate
intermediate1919
1919 E. de B. Barnett Coal Tar Dyes i. ii. 29 Aniline.—This is the most important intermediate, and is invariably manufactured by the reduction of nitrobenzole.
1919 E. de B. Barnett Coal Tar Dyes i. ii. 31 Factories preparing their own intermediates.
1938 Nature 30 July 203/2 Mr. F. P. Garvan's appreciation of the dependence of the United States on Germany for dyes, intermediates, photographic chemicals, medicinals, etc., led him to organize the Chemical Foundation.
1953 Nature 27 June 1160/2 (heading) Occurrence of hydroxylamine in lake waters as an intermediate in bacterial reduction of nitrate.
1961 Times 30 May (I.C.I. Suppl.) p. xvi/1 All of them are ‘intermediates’—the raw materials of other products such as Terylene or plastics.
1962 J. Hine Physical Org. Chem. (ed. 2) vii. 163 In most of the SN1 reactions that have been studied kinetically the carbonium ion is a very reactive intermediate that is rapidly transformed into the final product.
1962 Biochem. & Biophysical Res. Communications IX. 493 The normal pathway for the metabolism of methionine involves demethylation to homocysteine which in turn combines with serine to form cystathionine, an intermediate along the pathway to cysteine and cystine.
2. A person who intervenes between others.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > intermediate agency > intermediate means > person as
dealerc1000
meanc1384
mediatorc1390
moyen1455
intermediator1522
broker1530
middlera1533
intercessor1554
mercury1602
intermedial1605
transactor1611
interdealer1613
intermeddler1630
intercommuner1638
middleman1648
second hand1655
inter-agent1728
intermediary1791
in-between1815
medium1817
intermediate1879
come-between1919
tolkach1955
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul II. x. xlviii. 445 Representing God as a Being so far removed..that they could only approach Him through a series of angelic intermediates.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. lxiv. 470 Rendering a little homage to decency by seeking to do it through intermediates.
Compounds
Special collocations:
intermediate boson n. now chiefly historical a vector boson of ‘intermediate’ mass that was postulated to exist as the quantum or intermediary of weak interactions, and is now identified with the W and Z bosons (see W n. 5b, Z n. 11); also intermediate vector boson.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > particle physics > weak or strong force > [noun] > weak force > intermediary of weak interaction
intermediate boson1958
vector boson1976
1958 Physical Rev. 110 1482/2 The existence of such a heavy boson..will itself lead to the occurrence of decays which are not found in nature, and which would not occur in any detectable amount if there are no intermediate bosons.
1965 New Statesman 17 Sept. 393/3 One of these tracks may well be the first sign of the existence of the long-sought particle of matter called intermediate boson.
1983 Nature 27 Jan. 285 Physicists in Geneva have discovered the intermediate vector boson.
2007 I. Stewart Why Beauty is Truth xiii. 237 The strong force is carried by gluons, the weak force by intermediate vector bosons.
2009 S. Brandt Harvest of Cent. lxxxv. 397 Ever since Yukawa's work..the possibility had been considered to transmit weak interaction by exchange of a boson, then referred to as intermediate boson and now called weak boson or W boson.
intermediate frequency n. Electronics the frequency to which an incoming carrier wave is converted by the frequency changer of a superheterodyne receiver; abbreviated I.F. n. at I n.1 Initialisms.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > [noun] > signal > frequency or band of frequencies
high frequency1842
low frequency1900
voice frequency1905
audio frequency1913
pulsatance1919
medium frequency1920
side frequency1920
intermediate frequency1924
bass1930
frequency1943
frequency spectrum1955
1924 Proc. IRE 12 540 Three intermediate frequency amplifiers.
1947 D. G. Fink Radar Engin. x. 504 The [radar receiver] system which avoids the foregoing difficulties is the superheterodyne, which introduces an initial change from radio frequency to a lower frequency (intermediate frequency) followed by a high-gain amplification at this frequency.
1968 B. P. Lathi Communication Syst. iii. 202 The advantage of conversion to an intermediate frequency is that to receive different stations it is necessary to tune only the first stage (and the local oscillator). All of the amplification is achieved at a constant intermediate frequency and needs no tuning.
intermediate host n. Zoology an organism infected by a parasitic animal which then goes on to complete its life cycle in another host.
ΚΠ
1878 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 1 377 The ultimate form assumed by the larvae whilst still within the body of the intermediate host.
1892 Brady Addr. Tyneside Field Club 9 To complete the life-cycle of any one of these creatures [tape-worms], successive residence is necessary in the bodies of two distinct species of animal,..thus called the ‘intermediate host’ and the ‘final host’.
1901 Practitioner Mar. 273 It is parasitic in man and in a certain genus of mosquito (Anopheles); the former is its intermediate host and the latter its definitive host.
1925 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. iii. 365 The latter issue from the galls and are divisible into winged gallicolæ migrantes (migrantes), which fly to the intermediate host, and gallicolæ non-migrantes which remain on the spruce and give rise to further fundatrices.
1971 E. R. Noble & G. A. Noble Parasitology (ed. 3) xxiv. 528/1 As a generalization, there is less host specificity when there are two intermediate hosts than when only one is employed.
intermediate-range n. used attributively of a ballistic missile of medium range (less than ‘intercontinental’).
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > guided or ballistic missile > [adjective] > of specific range
intermediate-range1956
standoff1957
1956 Newsweek 30 Jan. 27/1 Developing a 1,500-mile intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is now largely a question of ‘straightforward engineering’.
1957 Economist 30 Nov. 774/2 The Polaris, the intermediate range ballistic missile to be launched from submarines.
1959 Listener 18 June 1053/1 Intermediate-range ballistic missiles—in other words, medium-range rockets.
Draft additions August 2001
intermediate technology n. (a) a technology that is intermediate between other technologies or represents a transitional stage between them; (b) technology devised for the developing world which is simpler, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than that of the developed world, and so is better suited to local resources and knowledge, but which is more efficient or productive than traditional local crafts; the development or advocacy of such technology; cf. appropriate technology n. at appropriate adj. and n. Additions.
ΚΠ
1962 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 76 97 Such points of discontinuity are found in the case of two (or more) alternative techniques where there is no smooth transition between them in terms of a continuous series of intermediate technologies.
1965 E. F. Schumacher in R. Robinson Industrialisation in Developing Countries 96 The ‘intermediate technology’ will not reject any..devices, but it..does not depend on them.
1990 Hindu (Madras) 16 Jan. 17/1 The farms are suited for organic farming and application of intermediate technology.
2001 Financial Times (Nexis) 11 Apr. 20 Nokia said it expected a mass-market in GPRS—an intermediate technology on the way to full 3G—to take off at the beginning of 2002 ‘as millions of users start to subscribe to new non-voice data services’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
intermediatev.
/ɪntəˈmiːdɪeɪt/ΘΚΠ
the world > time > [verb (intransitive)] > intervene
intercede1578
intervene1621
intermediate1652
1652 J. French York-shire Spaw xv. 113 The full proportion [must] be not taken at once, but at several times, exercise intermediating.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > acting in another's business or intervention > act in another's business or intervene [verb (intransitive)]
to step in1474
to go (etc.) between the bark and the tree1546
to make in1575
intermediate1610
interposea1616
to put in1631
intervene1646
to strike ina1715
to wade in1905
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 135 They had an opinion, that she intermediated in humane affaires.
1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Intermediare, to enter-mediate.
1639 J. Ford Ladies Triall v. sig. I4 Ile tell yee what conditions threaten danger, Unlesse you intermediate.
1694 [see intermediating adj. at Derivatives]. 1716 [see intermediating adj. at Derivatives]. 3. To act between others; to mediate.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > find means to do something [verb (intransitive)] > act as intermediate means
to go betweenc1320
to come between ——?1492
intercede1578
factor1621
intermediate1624
trample1624
mediate1630
intervene1646
to come in between ——1676
1624 R. Montagu Immediate Addresse 118 It is either because they will not intermediate for vs..Or because they cannot.
1838 T. Moore Diary 26 May in Mem. (1856) VII. 226 Leaving the whole conduct of the death-bed scene to an abbé, who intermediated.
1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) viii. 190 To intermediate between these agents and the nerves of sight and hearing.
4. transitive. To join by parts of intermediate character. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > fact or action of being joined or joining > join (together) [verb (transitive)] > join by intervening or intermediate part
tack1639
intermediate1880
1880 C. Waldstein Pythagoras of Rhegion 27 In poor work, the muscles, joints, &c...are not intermediated—they seem put together; while in good work..all flows together, as in nature.
Derivatives
interˈmediating adj. interposing, acting as an intermediary.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > acting as intermediate agent > specifically of person
mediate1571–2
middling1631
intermediating1694
mesne1812
intermediate1855
1694 E. Phillips tr. J. Milton Lett. of State 144 That you would..by interposing your intermediating Authority, endeavour to avert the horrid Cruelty of this Edict.
1716 M. Davies Athenæ Britannicæ II. 382 That the Son..proceeded Naturally and Necessarily from the Father without his Intermediating Fiat or Creating Volition.
1866 J. H. Newman Let. to Pusey (ed. 2) 90 It is the Divine Presence which is the intermediating Power by which we reach her [Mary] and she reaches us.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
adj.n.1623
v.1610