mediocreyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[mediocre 词源字典]
mediocre: [16] Etymologically, mediocre means ‘halfway up a mountain’. It comes from Latin mediocris ‘of middle height, in a middle state’, which was formed from medius ‘middle’ (source of English medium) and ocris ‘rough stony mountain’.
=> medium[mediocre etymology, mediocre origin, 英语词源]
mediocre (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1580s, from Middle French médiocre (16c.), from Latin mediocris "of middling height or state, moderate, ordinary," figuratively "mediocre, mean, inferior," originally "halfway up a mountain," from medius "middle" (see medial (adj.)) + ocris "jagged mountain" (cognate with Greek okris "peak, point," Welsh ochr "corner, border," Latin acer "sharp;" see acrid). As a noun, "medicore thing or person," by 1834.