moyen

From Middle English moyen, moene, a variation of mene, meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin mediānus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Doublet of mid and mean.

moyen (countable and uncountable, plural moyens)

1. (obsolete, chiefly Scotland) Intercession; intervention.

• “moyen, n1.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Inherited from Middle French moyen, from Old French moien, earlier meien, inherited from Latin mediānus. Doublet of médian, a borrowing, and also of misaine.

• IPA^(key): /mwa.jɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

moyen m (plural moyens)

1. way, method, mean of doing something
2. medium

• capacité

• → Swedish: mojäng

moyen (feminine moyenne, masculine plural moyens, feminine plural moyennes)

1. middle
2. average
3. (Canada, informal, euphemistic) Big; impressive; serious
   • 1996, Chrystine Brouillet, C'est pour mieux t'aimer mon enfant, →ISBN, page 52:

     "Tu t'es embarquée dans une moyenne galère, Biscuit!"

     You got yourself something big there, Cookie!

4. (linguistics) middle
   • 1976, Cornelius J. Ruigh, “Observations sur la flexion des verbes du type τρίβω, φρύγω: l'origine des alternances ῑ/ῐ et ῡ/ῠ”, in Studies in Greek, Italic, and Indo-European linguistics: offered to Leonard R. Palmer on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, June 5, 1976, →ISBN, page 340:

     [N]ormalement, le vocalisme radical du parfait moyen est semblable à celui de l'aoriste passif[.]

     Normally, the root vocalism of the perfect middle is similar to that of the aorist passive.

• ordinaire

• moyennement
• Moyen Âge, Moyen-Âge
• Moyen-Orient

• médian

• “moyen”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• moyan, moin

From Middle English moyen, moene, a variation of mene, meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin mediānus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”).

moyen (plural moyens)

1. mediation; intervention

• “moyen, -an, n¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “moyen, n., v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.