Goldilocks

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Goldilocks

Wikipedia

Apparently from goldilocks, equivalent to goldy +‎ locks (“tuft of hair, curl”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡəʊldilɒks/, enPR: gōlʹdē-lŏks

Goldilocks

1. The protagonist of a traditional fairy tale. She is a golden-haired young girl who inquisitively enters the house of three bears and tries their three bowls of porridge, three chairs, and three beds, in each case finding only one that suits her.
   • 2022 September 6, Matthew Futterman, “The Great U.S. Open Ball Debate of 2022”, in The New York Times‎:

     Tennis players are the Goldilocks characters of sports.
     The balls are too big, or too small. The courts are too fast, or too slow. It’s too cold, or too hot, or too sticky, or too sunny.

2. (used attributively) A happy medium or optimal point between two extremes.
   • 2002, Gary Cokins, Activity-Based Cost Management: An Executive's Guide, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 87:

     Once the appropriate levels are stabilized at a Goldilocks level, not too detailed nor too summarized, then the connection of the ABC/M data to business problems, their analysis, and ultimate solutions can follow.

   • 2013, Peter Collier, A Most Incomprehensible Thing: Notes Towards a Very Gentle Introduction to the Mathematics of Relativity, Incomprehensible Books, →ISBN, page 14:

     The mathematically rigorous texts, on the other hand, are unreadable for the non- specialist. I was looking for something in-between, a Goldilocks volume pitched just at my level, neither too easy nor too difficult.

   • 2014, Laura Stapleton, The Very Best Man, Stapleton Enterprises, →ISBN:

     He sighed at the Goldilocks temperature. Jane might think different, but this felt perfect to him.