different between intermediary vs mediate

English

Etymology

From French intermédiaire.

Adjective

intermediary (not comparable)

1. Intermediate.

Derived terms

• intermediarily

Translations

Noun

intermediary (plural intermediaries)

1. An agent acting as a mediator between sides to facilitate agreement or cooperation.

   Synonyms: mediator, middleman, go-between, intercessor

   • A Mr. Whymper, a solicitor living in Willingdon, had agreed to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world […]

2. A person or organisation in an intermediate position (in a transaction, agreement, supply chain etc.)

   Synonyms: middleman, broker

   The intermediary between the manufacturer and retailer is the wholesaler

3. One or several stages of an event which occurs after the start and before the end.

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin mediatus, past participle of mediare (“to divide in the middle”) (in Medieval Latin, also “to be in the middle, be or become between, mediate”), from Latin medius (“middle”).

Pronunciation

• (verb) (US) IPA^(key): /?midie?t/
• (adjective) (US) IPA^(key): /?midi.?t/

Verb

mediate (third-person singular simple present mediates, present participle mediating, simple past and past participle mediated)

1. (transitive) To resolve differences, or to bring about a settlement, between conflicting parties.
2. (intransitive) To intervene between conflicting parties in order to resolve differences or bring about a settlement.
3. To divide into two equal parts.
   • 1701, William Holder, A Discourse Concerning Time

     Space from the elevation of one Foot, to the same Foot set down again, mediated by a step of the other Foot a Pace […]

4. To act as an intermediary causal or communicative agent; to convey.
5. To act as a spiritualistic medium.

Related terms

• mean
• median
• mediation
• mediator
• medium

Translations

Adjective

mediate

1. Acting through a mediating agency, indirect.
   • 1861, Sir William Hamilton, The Metaphysics of Sir William Hamilton (page 318)

     The Leibnitzio-Wolfians distinguish three acts in the process of representative cognition: — 1° the act of representing a (mediate) object to the mind; 2° the representation, or, to speak more properly, representamen, itself as an (immediate or vicarious) object exhibited to the mind; 3° the act by which the mind is conscious, immediately of the representative object, and, through it, mediately of the remote object represented.

   • 1989, Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf

     Vygotsky saw the development of language and mental powers as neither learned, in the ordinary way, nor emerging epigenetically, but as being social and mediate in nature, as arising from the interaction of adult and child, and as internalizing the cultural instrument of language for the processes of thought.

2. Intermediate between extremes.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)

3. Gained or effected by a medium or condition.

   • mediate positive proof

Derived terms

• immediate
• immediately
• mediately

Translations

Further reading

• mediate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mediate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• medaite

Italian

Adjective

mediate f pl

1. feminine plural of mediato

Verb

mediate

1. second-person plural present of mediare
2. second-person plural present subjunctive of mediare
3. second-person plural imperative of mediare
4. feminine plural past participle of mediare

Latin

Participle

medi?te

1. vocative masculine singular of medi?tus