Middler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual situated between distinct boundaries in age or rank
2. Someone who occupies a position between two extremes in age or status
3. An individual placed centrally among others by age or level

Etymology: "Middler" is a plain formation: the adjective "middle" with the suffix "-er" added to it, the same ending found in words like "older" or "eastern." Its sense is simply the one child who falls between the eldest and the youngest in a family, a role that many families describe without any special word at all. The suffix does the work here. Attaching "-er" to "middle" turns a position into a person, so the word names someone by where they sit in the sequence rather than by anything they do or are. Read literally, it is a label that exists only because a family has at least three children, which is why the term is most often met in discussions of birth order rather than in everyday talk.

Synonyms: intermediate, middle child, middleman

Antonyms: beginner, novice, expert, senior