Mediterraneanadj.n.
/ˌmɛdᵻtəˈreɪnɪən/, U.S. /ˌmɛdətəˈreɪniən/, /ˌmɛdətəˈreɪnjən/ A. adj.
1.
a. Mediterranean Sea n. (also †Sea Mediterranean) (the proper name of) the almost landlocked sea separating southern Europe from Africa, connected with the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar, with the Black Sea by the Bosporus, and (since 1869) with the Red Sea by the Suez Canal.
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the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [noun] > Mediterranean Sea
the great sea1382
sea of middle eartha1387
South Seaa1398
Mediterrany?a1475
Mediterranean Sea?1556
mid-earth sea1559
Midland Sea1579
Mediterrane1582
Mediterranean1621
middle-land sea1650
Great Lake1857
Mare Nostrum1921
Med?1942
?1556 N. Smyth tr. Herodian Hist. sig. Eeiiiv And from Seyn, vnto Rheyn, Gaule Narbonique extendeth it selfe, vnto the Sea Mediterranean, beyonde the Alpes, and the Ryuer Varvs, vnto the Pyrrhenyan Mountaignes.
1594 R. Ashley tr. L. le Roy Interchangeable Course vi. f. 75v All those which are within the mediterranean sea.
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 51 The Pirats..doe rob on the Ægean and Mediterranean seas.
c1645 W. Atkins Relation of Journey (1994) 233 This toune of Argeres..lyeth on the Numidian coaste of the Mediterranean Sea.
1693 tr. G. de Foigny New Discov. Terra Incognita ii. 26 There is no difficulty to go down into the Mediterranean Sea.
1738 T. Shaw Trav. Barbary & Levant 362 Water Spouts are more frequent near the Capes of Latikea, Greego, and Carmel than in any other Part of the Mediterranean Sea.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature II. xlv. 300 The first voyages into the Ægean, Euxine, and Mediterranean Seas, made by the various adventurers.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 66 The susceptibility, the vivacity, the natural turn for acting and rhetoric, which are indigenous on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
1893 F. W. L. Adams New Egypt 17 That ozoneless lake, immemorially stagnant in its depths, which we call the Mediterranean Sea.
1932 Amer. Jrnl. Dis. Children 44 364 The disease is limited almost wholly to Italians, Greeks and Syrians, i.e., to the people originating about the Mediterranean Sea.
1999 Nature 12 Aug. p. ix/2 Sediments around and under the Mediterranean Sea contain evidence of a dramatic episode of oceanic change during Late Miocene times.
b. Of a body of water: nearly or entirely surrounded or enclosed by dry land; landlocked.
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1813 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. vii. 182 The boundary of a mediterranean sea, or lake of fresh water.
1846 C. Darwin Geol. Observ. S. Amer. 235 (note) The theory that rock-salt is due to the sinking of water, charged with salt, in mediterranean spaces of the ocean.
1863 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. iii. 301 The great mediterranean sea of the Silurian age.
1948 R. L. Sherlock Permo-Triassic Formations iv. 40 The Hercynian Mountains were the result of the squeezing of the sediments deposited in a Mediterranean Sea, the Palaeozoic Tethys.
1971 Nature 29 Jan. 312/1 A large triangular mediterranean sea within Gondwana, margined by western India, Africa/Madagascar and Central East Antarctica.
c. Belonging to or situated in inland waters. rare.
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1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 245 The delta of the Mississippi has somewhat of an intermediate character between an oceanic and mediterranean delta.
2.
a. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea, the lands or countries in or surrounding it, or their culture.
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the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [adjective] > Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean1595
Mid-terranean1605
Mediterraneal1609
Mediterrane1621
Midland1660
1595 H. Chettle Piers Plainnes Prentiship sig. C3 The vertuous and famous virgin Aeliana, feared and loued not only in the Mediterranean Regions, but in the vtmost East admired.
1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 20 In M. Hackluits English discoueries, I haue not come in ken of one mizzen mast of a..mediteranean sternebearer sente from her [sc. Yarmouth's] Zenith or Meridian.
1679 E. Young Serm. White-Hall 29 Dec. 1678 27 One of the Mediterranean Pirates.
1762 T. Smollett Adventures Sir Launcelot Greaves I. i. 3 Capt. Crowe had commanded a merchant-ship in the Mediterranean-trade for many years, and saved some money by dint of frugality and traffick.
1773 Life N. Frowde 75 An Implement Mr. M'Namara had worn ever since he used the Mediterranean Trade.
1841 R. T. Lowe in Trans. Zool. Soc. 3 174 This common Mediterranean and Maderan species appears occasionally to visit the coasts of Cornwall.
1899 Daily News 14 Jan. 6/4 The whole costume is in Mediterranean blue cloth.
1947 R. Good Geogr. Flowering Plants viii. 143 Erica arborea..is distributed northward from tropical Africa well into the Mediterranean region.
1994 Where Winnipeg Mar. 48/3 A contemporary setting where the speciality is Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine.
b. Physical Anthropology. Designating, relating to, or characteristic of a human physical type found esp. in lands or countries in or surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, characteristically dark-complexioned and of short stature relative to the peoples of Northern Europe. Cf. Eurafrican adj. and n.
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > other racial types > [adjective]
Ligurian1632
Mediterranean1876
Eurafrican1890
Alpine1894
Armenoid1894
Nordic1898
Eurasiatic1901
Veddoid1956
1876 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 6 272 We have no right to apply the term Mediterranean to the Aryan and Semitic races, together with the Caucasians and Basques as is now so commonly done; and which was..first used in this sense by Frederich Müller, in the report of the voyage of the Novara..1868.
1899 A. H. Keane Man Past & Present 444 The right of citizenship is to be withdrawn from such time-honoured names as ‘Hamitic’, ‘Semitic’..in favour of ‘Mediterranean’, ‘Eurafrican’, and other upstarts.
1910 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 217/1 Whether this type is more conveniently designated by the word Iberian, or by some other name (‘Eur-african’, ‘Mediterranean’, &c.).
1935 J. S. Huxley & A. C. Haddon We Europeans iv. 137 The Nordic, Eurasiatic, and Mediterranean types which are now scattered through the European population.
1960 J. Comas Man. Physical Anthropol. ix. 602 This is the Dinaric race, which seems to be a Mediterranean type brachycephalized by some non-Mediterranean agency.
1991 R. Oliver Afr. Experience iv. 42 A mixed population, which must surely have been more Black African than Mediterranean in physical character, nevertheless became Chadic-speaking.
c. Designating a climate typical of lands around the Mediterranean Sea, characterized by hot dry summers and mild wet winters.The term is applied to the climates of various other regions of the world, such as parts of California, Chile, South Africa, and southern Australia.
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > [adjective] > of or relating to climate > specific types of climate
excessive1830
insular1830
oceanic1849
continental1865
marine1865
Mediterranean1888
maritime1939
1888 Fortn. Rev. Mar. 481 It may..be doubted if any Mediterranean climate whatever can be quite so good for human beings as any isothermal Atlantic one.
1896 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 324 (heading) Influence of the Mediterranean climate on plants.
1908 R. de C. Ward Climate v. 124 The sub-tropical belt is exceptionally wide... The fact that the Mediterranean countries are so generally included in this belt has led to the use of the name ‘Mediterranean climates’.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. xxi. 421 The plant has a special use in those areas where the climate approximates to the Mediterranean type.
1969 H. Neuberger & J. Cahir Princ. Climatol. vi. 81 Climates having dry summers and wet winters as a result of the shifts of the subsidence belts are said to be ‘Mediterranean’ or ‘California’ climates.
1995 B. Bryson Notes from Small Island (1996) ix. 124 An island of rocky coves and long views that was recognizably British, but with a Mediterranean climate.
3. Of land: inland, remote from the coast, midland (contrasted with maritime). Also: intermediate (between two areas).In quot. 1773 designating an inhabitant of such a region.
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the world > the earth > water > lake > [adjective] > land-locked
Mediterrane?a1425
Mediterrany?a1425
Midland1579
Mediterranean1601
Mediterraneal1609
the world > the earth > land > land mass > shore or bank > interior land > [adjective]
Midlanda1475
upland1575
Mediterraneal1598
Mediterrane1599
Mediterranean1601
mediterraneous1646
interior1772
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvii. ii. 501 The Mediterranean or mid-land parts of any countrey are..preferred before the maritime or sea-coasts.
1656 (title) The Opening of Rivers for Navigation..a Mediterranean Passage by Water for Billanders of thirty tun, between Bristol and London.
a1691 R. Boyle Gen. Hist. Air (1692) 197 The more mediterranean parts of Russia.
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters ii. 54 Sea water differs..not essentially, from the waters of our mediterranean salt springs.
1773 S. Johnson Let. 28 Aug. (1992) II. 62 Craggy rocks, of height not stupendous, but to a mediterranean visitor uncommon.
1862 J. H. Bennet Mentone & Biarritz as Winter Climates (ed. 2) viii. 199 There is a highland region, an elevated Mediterranean area of mountains and valleys.
1869 G. Rawlinson Man. Anc. Hist. 12 The rivers of the central tract are continental or mediterranean; i.e. they begin and end without reaching the sea.
B. n.† 2. An inhabitant of an inland region. Obsolete. rare.
1.
a. With the. The Mediterranean Sea; the islands and countries of this area.
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the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [noun] > Mediterranean Sea
the great sea1382
sea of middle eartha1387
South Seaa1398
Mediterrany?a1475
Mediterranean Sea?1556
mid-earth sea1559
Midland Sea1579
Mediterrane1582
Mediterranean1621
middle-land sea1650
Great Lake1857
Mare Nostrum1921
Med?1942
1621 P. Heylyn Microcosmus 50 France is bounded..on the South, with the Mediterranean.
1663 A. Cowley To Mr. Hobs in Pindaric Odes iv The Caspian, And slender-limb'd Mediterranean.
1718 J. Addison Remarks Italy (ed. 2) 3 There is nothing more undetermined among the Learned than the Voyage of Ulysses; some confining it to the Mediterranean, others [etc.].
1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. iii. 1 The Spinous Tortoise..seems common to the Mediterranean.
1833 T. Hook Parson's Daughter I. ii. 30 The blondes of the Baltic, the brunettes of the Mediterranean.
1875 S. Cox in Expositor 251 The blue waters of the Mediterranean.
1941 D. Efron Gesture & Environment i. 5 The bodily language of the Mediterranean is a ‘swinging, and dancing of gestures’.
1998 R. Gunesekera Sandglass i. 6 His gaberdine blazer..made him look as though he was going yachting in the Mediterranean instead of to his mother's funeral.
b. An inland sea or lake; a body of water nearly or entirely surrounded by land. rare.
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the world > the earth > water > lake > [noun]
mereeOE
laya1000
lakec1275
poolc1275
watera1325
loughc1330
loch1427
broad1659
Mediterranean1661
Mediterrane1694
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια, sive Panzoologicomineralogia Isagoge sig. D5 Some [fishes] are better in the ocean than in the mediterranean, and the contrary.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. 544 The North Polar Ocean is a great mediterranean.
1977 Nature 2 June 405/2 It therefore seems most likely that the site for brine accumulation is a large mediterranean isolated from the ocean, especially with regard to its deeps.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > [noun] > inhabitant of inland region
inlander1610
Mediterranean1655
epirot1660
1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 131 Again the Mediterraneans the Highlanders muttered at the Imposition.
3. An inhabitant of any of the lands or countries in or surrounding the Mediterranean Sea; (Cultural Anthropology) a person of the Mediterranean physical type (see sense A. 2b).
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > other racial types > [noun]
Pontic1683
yellow man1788
yellowskin1847
Euro-African1854
Mediterranean1876
Armenoid1894
Alpine1899
Nordic1900
Eurasiatic1901
blond beast1907
Caspian1923
Veddoid1948
1876 Manufacturer & Builder Oct. 230/3 The hair has a tendency to be more or less curly, and also the beard is more developed than in any other race..; to this class belong the Dravidas in Hindostan, the Nubias in Africa, and the Mediterraneans.
1888 C. Morris Aryan Race i. 13 The hair of the Mediterraneans is not so long or so cylindrical in section as in the Mongolians.
1921 19th Cent. & After May 896 It would be difficult to deny that the latinised ‘Mediterraneans’ are the most finely tempered peoples of Europe.
1939 C. S. Coon Races of Europe iv. 83 Some Mediterraneans were probably white skinned, and others brown.
1977 G. Clark World Prehist. (ed. 3) i. 10 The Eskimo and north Europeans have narrow nostrils, the Mediterraneans medium ones.
1997 Economist 15 Feb. 35/3 Until recently, the Germans had hoped that some figleaf..could be found to persuade the Mediterraneans to accept exclusion in 1999.
Compounds
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1603 T. Dekker 1603: Wonderfull Yeare sig. D4 How nimble is Sicknes,..The greatest cutter that takes vp the Mediterranean Ile in Powles for his Gallery to walke in, cannot ward off his blowes.
1609 T. Dekker Guls Horne-bk. (1812) 94 Your mediterranean isle is then the only gallery wherein the pictures of all your true fashionate and complemental gulls are..hung up.
Mediterranean anaemia n. [so called because thalassaemia was first observed in persons of Mediterranean origin] Medicine thalassaemia, esp. thalassaemia major.
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1936 G. H. Whipple & W. L. Bradford in Jrnl. Pediatrics 9 292 The clinical diagnosis was Mediterranean anemia, pericardial effusion, bronchopneumonia terminal.
1954 Blood 9 648 The term Mediterranean anemia is used in this paper to encompass the entire group of diseases characterized by microcytosis, hypochromia, ovalocytosis, anisocytosis and poikilocytosis, and, most prominently, targeting [i.e. formation of target cells], together with certain familial hereditary patterns and clinical features.
1971 F. A. Ward Primer of Haematol. vi. 54 If,..in Mediterranean anaemia, it can be shown that excessive destruction of red cells is taking place almost exclusively in the spleen, then splenectomy will relieve but, of course, not cure the condition.
1992 N.Y. Times Mag. 6 Sept. 29/1 One of the blood diseases, thalassemia, is so strongly associated with families of Italian and Greek origin that it is sometimes called Mediterranean anemia.
Mediterranean blue n. an intense mid-blue.
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1874 Cornhill Mag. 30 464 The sea which he [sc. Crabbe] loved was by no means a Byronic sea. It has no grandeur of storm, and still less has it the Mediterranean blue.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 14 Dec. 17/2 A blue of the peacock shade, to which just now Fashion has given the name of Mediterranean blue.
1988 High Life (Brit. Airways) Apr. 76 A tried and trusted favourite, Mary Quant's poncho, is popular this year in new colourways, among them Mediterranean blue/white.
Mediterranean diet n. a diet of a type traditional in Mediterranean countries, spec. one rich in olive oil and vegetables, and thought to confer health benefits.
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the world > food and drink > food > diet > [noun] > specific diets
Lessian diet1646
milk-diet1671
flesh-diet1731
meagre1770
bean-diet1820
mono-diet1920
Hay diet1925
Mediterranean diet1928
Atkins1972
slim1977
F Plan Diet1982
1928 Agric. Hist. 2 83 Bread, oil, wine, figs, and grapes..formed staple articles in the ancient Mediterranean diet.
1977 Chicago Tribune 10 Nov. vi. 16/3 A diet plan that raises HDL resembles the Asiatic or Mediterranean diet—emphasizing fish, vegetables, cereals and other whole grains, dried beans, and providing little, if any meat.
2008 J. Chamberlain Cancer 130 The Mediterranean diet of olive oil, pasta, vegetables with a little wine and lots of grapes has been put forward by some as a healthy diet that we should adopt.
Mediterranean disease n. Medicine = Mediterranean anaemia n.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of blood > [noun] > deficiency of red cells > anaemia > types of
ischemy1855
pernicious anaemia1874
ischaemia1878
Addison's anaemia1886
Addisonian pernicious anaemia1894
favism1903
Addisonian anaemia1904
hypoplastic anaemia1906
sickle cell anaemia1922
sicklemia1932
thalassaemia1932
Cooley's anaemia1934
Mediterranean disease1936
target cell anaemia1938
1936 G. H. Whipple & W. L. Bradford in Jrnl. Pediatrics 9 279 (heading) Mediterranean disease—thalassemia (erythroblastic anemia of Cooley).
1936 G. H. Whipple & W. L. Bradford in Jrnl. Pediatrics 9 279 This interesting disease presents three important abnormalities together characterizing a syndrome which may be designated ‘Mediterranean disease’.
Mediterranean fruit fly n. a fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (family Tephritidae), whose larvae cause considerable damage to citrus fruit; also called medfly.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > miscellaneous types > member of family Tephritidae
Mediterranean fruit fly1899
Mexican fruit fly1924
medfly1929
1899 Agric. Gaz. New S. Wales 10 497 All the specimens bred at this office have been the Western or Mediterranean Fruit-fly (Halterophora capitata)... This is quite a modern importation. In 1897 it was discovered in orchards near Perth, Western Australia... Though unknown previous to this in the Colonies, it had a well known record in Europe as far back as 1826, when it was described by Wiedman [recte Wiedemann] as an orange pest under the name of Citriperda capitata.
1912 Circular Bureau Entomol., U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 160. 1 The recent establishment in Hawaii of the Mediterranean fruit-fly..and the quarantine restrictions against Hawaiian fruit imposed by the State of California have aroused considerable interest in this very destructive insect.
1923 Jrnl. Agric. Res. 25 1 Control by parasites has been the only method of combating the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata..) in Hawaii that has met with any success.
1998 Agric. Res. Jan. 2/2 The recent discovery of Mediterranean fruit flies in Florida..restricted movement of citrus.
Mediterranean pine n. either of two pines common in the Mediterranean region, the maritime pine, Pinus pinaster, and the stone pine, Pinus pinea.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > conifers > [noun] > pines and allies > cluster pine
pinaster1562
sea-pine1753
Mediterranean pine1760
maritime pine1850
cluster-pine1857
1760 G. Washington Diary 21 Mar. (1925) I. 145 Planted 4 nuts of the Mediterranean Pine in the Pen where the Chestnut grows.
1933 R. Aldington All Men are Enemies i. xi. 102 Mediterranean pines and twisted oaks and chestnuts stood among a magnificence of arbutus, giant white heath, yellow coronilla.
1983 Economist 6 Aug. 46 Attempts to reafforest devastated areas with trees which are less flammable than the fragrant Mediterranean pine are sometimes resisted.
Mediterranean spotted fever n. Medicine a rickettsial disease occurring chiefly in southern Europe, Africa, and southern Asia, caused by Rickettsia conorii.
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1979 Annales de Microbiol. 130 203 (title) Serological diagnosis of Mediterranean spotted fever.
1984 Jrnl. Infectious Dis. 150 145 In six of the 11 cases finally diagnosed as Mediterranean spotted fever, coccobacillary forms of Rickettsia conorii were identified in these sections.
1997 Jrnl. Clin. Microbiol. 35 1034 These [ELISA] techniques provide a simple and convenient way to serodiagnose Mediterranean spotted fever and murine typhus with a single serum dilution.
Mediterranean-style adj. of a style or design associated with or suggestive of Mediterranean culture.
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1976 Honolulu Star-Bull. 21 Dec. g-12 (advt.) 100% Solid state chassis. Replaceable plug-in circuit modules. Instamatic color tuning. In beautiful Mediterranean style cabinet in rich pecan grain finish.
1993 San Francisco Examiner Image 10 Jan. 27/1 Once you have a fountain with spouting water, it's almost automatic to think about a Mediterranean-style garden.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.?1556