Today's
WOTD is: "media" = stocking
In Spanish, “media”
is a feminine noun of Latin origin, a
meaning of which is stocking.
In many parts of the Spanish speaking world, particularly in the
Americas, the word “media”
is used to refer to a sock.
In this context the plural form "medias"
is also often used.
As
a noun "media"
may also be used to refer to:
- The average, mean (mathematics);
- The midfield (football/ soccer);
The
word “media”
is also the feminine form of a describing word/ adjective “medio”*/
“media”
the main meaning of which half.
A related action word/ verb
is “mediar”, which means to mediate or to be in
between/ to be in the middle.
Some expressions with the
word “media” are:
- A media luz (in dim light/ lights dimmed);
- Bandera a media asta (flag at half mast);
- Clase media (middle class);
- Edad Media (Middle Ages);
- Enseñanza media (secondary education);
- Línea media (the midfield -football/ soccer and similar sports)
- Media aritmética (arithmetic mean);
- Media cuadrática (root mean square);
- Media geométrica (geometric mean);
- Medias de nailon (nylon stockings);
- Medias de seda (silk stockings... also a cocktail)
- Onda media (Medium Wave -radio broadcast);
- Siete y media* (card game);
- Velocidad media (average speed);
- Vida media (half life);
*NB
The game is played with a Spanish deck of cards (baraja
española).
The game play and rules are very similar to blackjack. In the case of
“siete y media”,
ordinary cards (1/ ace → 7) are counted as their numerical value,
whilst each face card (sota,
caballo,
rey)
is counted as “half” a point. The object of the “siete
y media”
game is to reach “seven and a half” points or a score higher than
the dealer without going over “seven and a half” points.
Some
examples of the use of the word "media"
is:
- Cenamos a media luz y con música suave de fondo (we had dinner with lights dimmed and a soft background music);
- Hoy ondea la bandera a media asta (today the flag is flying at half mast);
- Se trata de una familia de clase media (the family in question is a middle class family);
- La Edad Media es un período histórico (the Middle Ages are a period in history);
- La enseñanza media es obligatoria y gratuita (secondary education is compulsory and free);
- El Barcelona tiene una línea media muy buena (Barcelona FC has a very good midfield);
- La cifra importante es la media aritmética (the important figure is the arithmetic mean);
- La cifra importante es la media cuadrática (the important figure is the root mean square);
- La cifra importante es la media geométrica (the important figure is the geometric mean);
- Las medias de nailon son muy resistentes y livianas (nylon stockings are more hard-wearing and lighter)
- Esas medias de seda son preciosas (those silk stockings are lovely);
- Me apetece tomar un medias de seda (I feel like having a silk stockings cocktail);
- Hoy comienza transmitir una nueva emisora de radio de onda media (today, a new MW radio station begins broadcasting);
- ¿Jugamos a las siete y media? (shall we have a game of “siete y media”?);
- Viajamos a una velocidad media de 90 km/h (we travelled at an average speed of 90 Km/h);
- El plutonio-244 tiene una vida media de unos 80 millones de años (plutonium-244 has a half life of about 80 million years);
*NB
'Click' on the speaker icon next to the word “media”
in the link to hear the word pronounced.
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