ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's a shmoopy question you might find on an exam somewhere in life...

00:07

Two of my friends were arguing about who was the more argumentative of the two, and even

00:12

though I didn't want to get in the middle of their fight, I agreed to mediate.

00:16

What is the meaning of the word mediate? And here are the potential answers:

00:24

So... what is "mediate"?

00:27

No... that's meat he ate.

00:29

Let's break up the word to get the answer.

00:32

MEDI -- kinda sounds like medium... or maybe a derivative of middle?

00:37

Technically, it comes from the Latin "medius"...

00:40

So... take a leap and we can think about putting something in the middle.

00:44

If you mediate, you take a position in the middle... and try to get each angry party's

00:49

perspective to make them happy.

00:52

Well, as happy as you can. D is the opposite of mediate and will result

00:55

in nothing but more arguing. Which could actually be what your bizarro friends want.

01:01

You do A and C -- so neither one is an awful answer here...

01:05

But we want the BEST answer... and that's B -- mediate means to help bring about agreement.

01:11

Which means more peace and quiet for everyone involved.

Full Transcript