/ˈmɪdlmɛn/, U.S. /ˈmɪdlˌmɛn/.middlemann.
/ˈmɪdlman/, U.S. /ˈmɪd(ə)lˌmæn//ˈmɪdlmɛn/, U.S. /ˈmɪdlˌmɛn/. I. Literal uses.† 1. A man occupying a central or middle position in space. Obsolete. † 2. Military. A soldier in the fifth or sixth rank in a file of ten deep. Obsolete.
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c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) John i. 26 Sothli, the myddil man of ȝou [L. medius..vestrum] stood, whom ȝe knowen not.
1598 W. Lisle tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Colonies 65 The middle man takes part of all the qualities Of people dwelling neere the two extremities.
1830 O. W. Holmes Treadmill Song in Amateur (Boston) 7 Aug. 59 Go it, now, you middle men, And try to beat the ends—It's pleasant work to ramble round Among one's honest friends.
1855 A. Cary Poems 39 Past the hostel white they rode, These men that three gray mules bestrode... Then looking back, Cried out the middle man, ‘Alack! I spy a rude black inn.’
1883 Catholic World May 261 What Grimm endeavors to prove is simply that the Marcomanni were ‘border-men’ because they lived in a central district!.. The Marcomanni bore the name of ‘borderers’, forsooth, because they were really ‘middlemen’!
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society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by position > [noun] > in middle
middleman1616
centre1627
mouser1802
1616 Orders establ. by Soc. of Armes, London A v, Item That no man take the place of Leading or Middle-man..without hee be thereunto appointed by the Captaine or Lieutenant.
1625 G. Markham Souldiers Accidence 28 The fifth Ranke from the Front downeward towards the Reare, are called Middlemen to the reare, and the sixth Rank are called Middlemen to the front.
1672 T. Venn Mil. & Maritine Discipline i. v. 11 A File so drawn is distinguished according to their dignity of Place, a Leader, a Follower, two Middlemen, a Follower and a Bringer-up.
1696 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) Middleman (a term in the Art-military), he that stands middlemost in a File.
3. North American. A person who paddles or rows in the middle of a canoe or other boat.
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society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > sailor > types of sailor > [noun] > rower or oarsman > oarsman in specific position in boat
strokesman1769
middleman1801
stroke1825
bowman1829
bow1830
stroke-oar1836
stroke-oarsman1838
bow-oar1851
midship1897
1801 A. Mackenzie Voy. from Montreal p. xxviii The canoe men are of two descriptions, foremen and steersmen, and middlemen.
1809 A. Henry Trav. & Adventures Canada i. ii. 14 They engage to go from Montréal to Michilimackinack, and back..the middle-men at one hundred and fifty livres and the end-men at three hundred livres, each.
1839 J. K. Townsend Narr. Journey Rocky Mts. xv. 355 The middle-men ply their oars; the guides brace themselves against the gunwale of the boat.
1968 R. M. Patterson Finlay's River 63 The six members of Black's crew..consisted of bowsman and steersman, and four middlemen.
4. U.S. A man in the middle of a line of blackface minstrels who leads the dialogue between songs; = interlocutor n.1 3. Now chiefly historical.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > variety, etc. > performers in variety, etc. > [noun] > black minstrel > performing specific part
zip coon1833
Jim Crow1835
centreman1870
middleman1870
interlocutor1880
tambo1884
1870 O. Logan Before Footlights 248 I give it up, Brudder Bones, as the middle man at the minstrels always does the end man's conundrums.
1894 T. D. English Select Poems 344 I have been famous in my day. Bones, banjo, middle man and end.
1915 Scribner's Mag. June 756/1 The device for immediate and boisterous laughter, this putting down of the middle-man by the end-man, the Negro minstrels appear to have borrowed from the circus.
1930 C. Wittke Tambo & Bones iv. 136 Lively repartee between the endmen and the middleman.
5. Mountaineering. The middle climber of a team. middleman('s) knot (also loop, noose, etc.) n. a kind of knot used by a climber to tie himself or herself on to the middle of a rope.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > mountaineering or climbing > [noun] > artificial aid > types of
runner1688
runner ring1791
ice axec1800
alpenstock1829
rope1838
climbing-iron1857
piolet1868
snap-link1875
prickera1890
middleman('s) knot (also loop, noose, etc.)1892
chock1894
glacier-rope1897
piton1898
run-out1901
belaying-pin1903
snap-ring1903
ironmongery1904
line1907
Tricouni1914
ice claw1920
peg1920
sling1920
ice piton1926
ice hammer1932
karabiner1932
rock piton1934
thread belay1935
mugger1941
running belay1941
piton hammer1943
sky-hook1951
etrier1955
pied d'éléphant1956
rope sling1957
piton runner1959
bong1960
krab1963
rurp1963
ice screw1965
nut1965
traverse line1965
jumar1966
knife-blade1968
tie-off1968
rock peg1971
whammer1971
Whillans whammer1971
Whillans harness1974
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > mountaineering or climbing > [noun] > mountaineer or climber
rock climber1767
rockman1798
cragsman1816
cliffsman1829
mountaineer1860
Alpestrian1861
alpinist1861
cliffer1861
glissader1861
ascensionist1863
alpenstocker1864
shin-scraper1869
hillmana1885
second1907
Munro-bagger1910
summiteer1926
middleman1968
rock jock1980
free soloist1984
1892 C. T. Dent et al. Mountaineering (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) iv. 102 The ‘fisherman's bend’, used as a middleman noose for instance, has only 65 per cent of the strength of the rope.
1909 C. E. Benson Brit. Mountaineering ii. 33 The Middleman Loop is the only one that should be used for middlemen.
1951 E. Coxhead One Green Bottle vi. 160 Each child was tied on with a middleman's noose.
1968 E. Franklin Dict. Knots 21 Middleman's knot, also called the Englishman's Loop, (in America) the Fisherman's or Angler's Loop... It is a useful loop knot tied in the bight by one of at least four different methods. Once much used for the middleman on a rope in climbing, but now superseded.
1971 J. Lovelock Climbing iii. 43 The middle man can tie on to the rope in a number of ways.
6. A person who makes girdles; = girdler n. 1. Obsolete.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > tailoring or making clothes > making other clothing > [noun] > making other items of clothing > one who makes other items of clothing
wimpler1260
paltock-maker1376
wimplester1379
point-maker1405
girdler1428
silk-maid1474
pointer1500
middlemana1525
jack-maker1541
paste-wife1550
silkman1553
body-maker1573
linen-armourer1603
bodice-maker1672
costumier1798
costumer1830
costumist1842
rober1852
stock-maker1858
tie-maker1901
a1525 Coventry Leet Bk. 182 The Cardwirdrawers and the myddelmen most nedes bye the wire that they shull wirche of the smythiers.
III. Extended and figurative uses of branch I.
7.
a. A person standing in an intermediate relation to two parties (often with unfavourable connotations, as implying that direct relations between these parties would be preferable); an intermediary, a go-between; a person who deals in stolen goods. Also Newfoundland: an intermediary between the fishermen and the dealers.
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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
1648 W. Powell News for Newters 6 Traytors are the very off-spring of Judas, shamefully exposing themselves to the scorne and hatred of all men, both good and bad; It happening to these neutralizing middle-men, as to those that dwell in the middle roomes of some high building.
1677 G. Keith Way cast Up §13. 157 And so God through Christ is in us... Here Christ is the midle-man or Mediator as being in the Saints.
1767 C. Macklin Let. 25 Aug. in R. B. Peake Mem. Colman Family (1841) II. 268 Let me advise you to ask yourself if such a measure would be wise in you as a manager, entrusted as the middle man between the public and their entertainment, and the author who is to furnish it?
1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall of Rome viii. 414 While to the odious middle-man, or bailiff, was left the management of those patrimonial estates.
1866 C. W. Hatfield Hist. Notices Doncaster I. 100 There are middlemen and others who encourage and aid them in disposing of the stolen goods.
1875 Appletons' Jrnl. 11 Dec. 755/3 The Divinity-Student and the Merchant-Man were in love with the same young lady... The Fireman was the ‘middle-man’ of the affair, ‘the mutual friend’ and ‘go-between’.
1890 Cent. Dict. Middleman, in the fisheries, a planter.
1910 J. Addams Twenty Years at Hull-House xiii. 302 Our neighbors lost..a large percentage of the money they sent to Europe, through the commissions to middle men.
1920 S. Alexander Space, Time, & Deity I. 16 Berkeley saw the truth that there is no idea to act as middleman between the mind and external things, no veil betwixt the mind and reality.
1968 New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 11 Jan. 110/1 The middle-man of medical communication, the professional librarian.
1975 M. Hartmann Game for Vultures vii. 93 I need a reputable organization... To act as a front for us, as a middle-man.
1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 2 Dec. b6/2 High-end merchandise that can be resold to a ‘fence’, or middle man, is the most popular target.
b. A trader, company, etc., that handles a commodity between its producer and its consumer. (Now the predominant use.)
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society > trade and finance > trader > agent or broker > [noun] > middleman
broker1377
kiddier1551
huckster1574
jobber1647
middlemana1797
regrater1804
regrator1808
salesman-
a1797 E. Burke Thoughts on Scarcity (1800) 29 If the object of this scheme should be..to destroy the dealer, commonly called the middle man,..they must set up another trade.
1805 E. H. East Rep. Cases King's Bench 5 178 The Metcalfes..were middlemen between the vendors and the vendees.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 329/1 The workmen gradually became transformed from journeymen into ‘middlemen’, living by the labour of others... The middleman system is the one crying evil of the day.
1880 J. Lomas Man. Alkali Trade 245 A considerable part of the demand for low-strength ash and alkali emanates from certain unscrupulous vendors or ‘middle-men’.
1884 Overland Monthly Jan. 80/1 The State constituted itself a middleman between the producers of saltpetre and the European buyers.
1921 Amer. Woman Jan. 22/1 (advt.) Two wonderful Susquehanna Broadcloth Flannel Shirts only $3.69. Direct from factory. No middlemen's profits.
1962 H. O. Beecheno Introd. Business Stud. xi. 93 What they have done is to bring all the operations, or most of them, under the umbrella of one firm and cut out various ‘middlemen’ as separate concerns.
1990 Accountancy Mar. 184/3 In the example..the matching between the three companies is complete, so that the barter broker acts as nothing more than a middleman.
1999 Independent 7 June ii. 4/5 In management jargon, the Internet revolution is all about ‘disintermediation’ or cutting out the middle-man.
8. † b. A politician who manipulates opposing parties for personal ends (see quot. 1845). Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use.
a. A person who takes a middle course.
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the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > absence of prejudice > [noun] > middle course > follower of
commoderator1607
middleman1765
middle-of-the-roader1896
in-betweener1924
middle-roader1959
1765 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses (ed. 4) IV. v. vi. 379 Neither Unbelievers nor Believers will allow to these middle men that a new-existing Soul..can be identically the same with an annihilated Soul.
1861 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 4 166/2 The fence is not a graceful pedestal for anybody in these days... Its boards begged or stolen from a dozen knocked-to-pieces platforms are..tumbling into powder and splinters with every day—they have let down many an unfortunate middle-man upon the hard pavement.
1884 A. Birrell Obiter Dicta 179 Middle men may often seem to be earning for themselves a place in Universal Biography.
1902 A. B. Davidson Called of God vi. 168 There were three parties, the true worshippers of Jehovah, the strict idolaters, and the middle~men who were neither.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > discreditable political activity > [noun] > one engaged in
politico1630
job hunter1834
middleman1845
snollygoster1846
prostitute1889
1845 B. Disraeli Speech 11 Apr. in Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. 79 565 We have a great Parliamentary middleman. It is well known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party, and plunders the other, till, having obtained a position to which he is not entitled, he cries out. ‘Let us have no party questions, but fixity of tenure.’
9. In Ireland: a person who leases a tract of land and sublets it in smaller lots at a higher aggregate rent. Cf. middle landlord n. at middle adj. and n. Compounds 1a. Now historical.
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society > trade and finance > selling > hiring or letting out > [noun] > hirer out > one who sublets
midsman1614
middleman1780
sublessor1813
middle landlord1817
subletter1825
1780 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 323 In Ireland..Gentlemen of fortune let their estates to one man, who is called the middle man; he re-lets..to the occupying tenant.
1800 M. Edgeworth Castle Rackrent 28 The agent was one of your middle men, who grind the faces of the poor.
1827 G. Griffin Hollandtide 157 A kind of half-sir, a middleman.
1851 in Jrnl. Cork Hist. & Archaeol. Soc. (1974) 77 115 The two middleman leases of Killarida & Grange.
1903 Edinb. Rev. July 209 Absenteeism with its resulting evils of middlemen and rackrents was the worst bane of Ireland.
1908 S. J. Weyman Wild Geese iv. 48 A ‘middleman’,..one of those who, taking a long lease of a great estate and under-letting at rack rents, made..huge fortunes.
10. Baseball. = middle reliever n. at middle adj. and n. Compounds 1a.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > baseball player > [noun] > pitcher
pitcher1845
relief pitcher1884
southpaw1887
side-wheeler1890
moundsman1906
pretzel bender1908
starter1911
sidewinder1913
low-ball pitcher1915
fastballer1924
route-goer1924
reliever1925
hurler1926
fireballer1928
spitballer1928
screwballer1929
stopper1948
closer1980
middleman1985
1985 Dallas Morning News 25 July 7 b5 I was strictly a middle man. When the seventh or eighth innings came around, they'd pinch-hit for me and bring in the others.
1990 Sporting News Baseball Yearbk. Mar. 74/2 He asserted himself as an indefatigable middleman and late-innings reliever.
1991 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 19 July c4/1 If you change a pitcher in the fourth or fifth inning, that means you're going to change again in the sixth inning to get to your middleman, and then you get to the ninth, you'll switch again to get your short man.
Derivatives
ˈmiddlemanism n. rare = middlemanship n.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trader > agent or broker > [noun] > middleman > system of employing
middlemanship1848
middlemanism1889
1889 Co-operative News 6 Apr. 330 Middlemanism was becoming in every country a serious question.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
middlemanv.
/ˈmɪdlman/, U.S. /ˈmɪd(ə)lˌmæn/ 1. intransitive. To act as a middleman. rare.
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1966 ‘E. McGirr’ Funeral was in Spain 161 He's round and about, middle manning, he'll get you anything.
1993 B. O'Connor Here comes John 158 She gave this little tilt of her head,..wanting me to middle-man like I'd done for her and Jake and a few before for a bit of gear.
2. transitive. Chiefly North American. To handle (goods, etc.) as a middleman or intermediary.
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the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > render instrumental [verb (transitive)] > be intermediate means in
mean1440
mediate1630
refract1700
middleman1976
1976 Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 3 Apr. 14/2 I once got screwed by my cousin Norman who was an expert on cars and middlemanned the deal of a white sports car from his girl friend to me.
1977 N.Y. Times Mag. 18 Dec. 78/4 Amazon had seen Cubans in Oaxaca the previous November twice when he had been middle-manning a big weed shipment.
2000 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) (Nexis) 7 Jan. a49/3 Those in the poverty industry, the people who make their living middle-manning other people's money to those on the dole.
3. transitive. Baseball. To act as a middleman or middle reliever in. Cf. middleman n. 10.
ΚΠ
1987 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 21 Apr. c1 Schofield..middle-manned a double-play Monday night with Murphy sliding into his face.
1997 N.Y. Times 16 Nov. i. 32/3 In baseball, for example, is there any rule saying that a second baseman need only be in the neighborhood of second base while middle-manning a double play?
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1384
v.1966