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What is a latin morpheme for “middle” which can be used as a prefix, instead of “sub“ and “super”?

The context is the use of such a construct in English. So the following mentions some English examples.

One can say “subscript“ and “superscript”, and normal text is probably just “script”. But it might sometimes be useful to use a prefix which means “normal“ or “middle”, to make the distinction clear. You can also say “subordinate” and “superordinate” (though “superior” is probably more common), but there is apparently no similar word for “colleague” or “peer”. (By the way: one can not use the word “ordinate” itself for that, according to Merriam-Webster.)

Guildenstern
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    In English I would be inclined to say "midscript" to refer to normal text as opposed to "subscript" and "superscript". For a more Latin prefix (that could be used in Latin), perhaps inter- or medio-, but I don't have any examples to show how appropriate these are. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jul 17 '16 at 20:44
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    This probably belongs on ELU, as it's asking about English words, which happen to use borrowed Latin. –  Jul 17 '16 at 22:26
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    @QPaysTaxes I originally asked this question there, but then a commenter said that I should post it here instead... – Guildenstern Jul 17 '16 at 22:29
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    That commenter likely didn't know what they were talking about, then. It's far from uncommon for people to recommend posting a question on another site when they know nothing about that site but its title –  Jul 17 '16 at 22:30
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    Welcome! Most SE are unreasonably exclusive. We're still young and naïve and we're trying to be open and welcoming. I think this question is perfectly fine either on English.SE or here. – Cerberus Jul 17 '16 at 22:36
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    When cross posting, please link to the original question (if you haven't deleted it). – Earthliŋ Jul 18 '16 at 06:02
  • @Earthliŋ I did delete it. Last I heard duplicate questions were disallowed. – Guildenstern Jul 18 '16 at 08:27
  • Discouraged, yes, but in case it's not clear on which site the question belongs, it is sometimes helpful to have both versions live (with the appropriate links) until it has become clear (looking at the comments of both communities) which question should be deleted. – Earthliŋ Jul 18 '16 at 09:00
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    @Earthliŋ is correct. In some cases it might be good to have the question on different SE sites (but not twice on the same site). You can find some discussion and guidelines in this meta question. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jul 18 '16 at 09:07
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    I'm surprised no one mentioned inscript. – cmw Mar 02 '17 at 02:21
  • @cmw, no, OP was right that the level between super- and sub- is just no prefix at all, at least in the case of script. In-scription is going along the wrong axis (−Z) to be appropriate here. – lly Jun 16 '23 at 04:30

1 Answers1

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I would go with Latin medi(o)- or Greek meso-.

Medi- comes from Latin medius meaning "in the middle, moderate, indifferent". It's also the root of "medium" and "medial"; as a prefix, the first usage that comes to mind is the Greek mediopassive voice (i.e. a combination of the middle voice and the passive voice).

Meso- comes from the Greek μέσος, cognate to medius, also meaning "in between, moderate," etc. In English it's mostly used in place names (Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica) and scientific terms (meso-compounds in chemistry are neither right- nor left-handed).

Both of these are also related to the English "mid-" as in "midpoint" and "midway", which is the least technical and most easily understood of the three.

Draconis
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