mediocristn.
/ˌmiːdɪˈəʊk(ə)rɪst/, U.S. /ˌmidiˈoʊk(ə)rəst/ Now rare.
A person of mediocre talents or ability; (occasionally) a person who takes a middle course.Todd's edition of Johnson's Dictionary (1818) quotes Swift's Let. Pope 3 Sept. 1735; but the early editions of this have ‘among the mediocribus’, after Horace Ars Poetica 372.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [noun] > mediocre person
mediocrity1694
mediocrist1779
mediocritist1797
plug1848
little guy1939
poor little guy1955
1779 S. Johnson Hughes in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets IV. 13 He is too great a poet for me; and I think among the mediocrists, in prose as well as verse.
1787 J. Hawkins Life Johnson 271 If he be but a mediocrist, he is surely not a subject of imitation; it being a rule, that of examples the best are always to be selected.
1823 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. 170 Warburton draws a very just distinction between a man of true greatness and a mediocrist.
1864 Southern Literary Messenger 38 92/2 Sometimes a mediocrist and a man of genius are thus coupled together; and what is lost by the one is gained by the other.
1903 Sat. Rev. 12 Dec. 722 Mr. ——, the cultured mediocrist, so rarely relaxes the firm hold he has on commonplace,..that [etc.].
1909 Westm. Gaz. 15 July 2/1 It seems to be another clear case for compromise. Had we not better all aspire to be mediocrists in meekness?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1779