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Borrowed from Late Latinmediatus, past participle of mediare(“to divide in the middle”) (in Medieval Latin, also “to be in the middle, be or become between, mediate”), from Latinmedius(“middle”).
"Nay," replied Charles, gravely, "this is carrying your anger too far. Allow me to mediate between you. I must entreat, nay, I command, the Lady Francesca's presence."
1694, William Holder, “Of Measure in General. § More Particularly of Time; and Difficulties Concerning It.”, in A Discourse Concerning Time,, London: J Heptinstall, for L Meredith,, →OCLC, page 6:
Then, Meaſuring Land, by vvalking over it, they ſtyled a Double-ſtep (i.e. the Space from the elevation of one Foot, to the ſame Foot ſet dovvn again, mediated by a ſtep of the other Foot) a Pace, equal to 5 Foot; a Thouſand of vvhich Paces made a Mile, vvhich is a Meaſure ſerving for any diſtance on Earth, and even for the Height of the Sphears.
To act as an intermediary causal or communicative agent; to convey.
He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.
2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 8:
[A]s much as language in our modern technological world is mediated through the written word, quantitatively spoken language still reigns supreme.
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.