{"id":9974,"date":"2022-10-06T19:15:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=9974"},"modified":"2022-10-06T19:15:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:15:10","slug":"meeting-in-the-middle-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/meeting-in-the-middle-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting in the Middle \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are you working hard to compromise with someone at work? Maybe you have a difficult neighbor with whom you keep bumping heads. If so, it is a good idea to try meeting them in the middle so that both sides are able to live happily. Not sure what meeting in the middle means? This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The phrase meeting in the middle, or meet in the middle means to come to a compromise. When someone asks you to meet in the middle, then they are asking you to help find a solution that all parties will be satisfied with. In the terms of negotiation, it is similar to giving up a bit of what you want in order for the other party to get what they desire and vice versa. Meeting someone halfway, or actually traveling to a midpoint between two locations. For example, if you needed to meet someone 10 miles away, meeting them halfway would be at the 5-mile mark.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lesser-used meaning of meeting it in the middle is for a sexual act. One such act is when two women perform oral sex on a male starting from different positions. Another is when two men will use their organs to penetrate the ear of a person in the middle. Both of these meanings are rather modern and very limited in their actual usage.<\/p>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cRussia and Ukraine will both end up losers in this conflict. It\u2019s best if they can somehow work on meeting in the middle\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth major political parties want the best for the American people, meeting in the middle is the only way to ensure that actually happens\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know about meeting in the middle when it comes to my ex, he just refuses to co-parent amicably\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of constantly fighting with your siblings, suggest a solution that is essentially meeting in the middle of the aisle\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>There is no real identifiable source of the phrase meeting in the middle, but it has been used for many years. The word meet has Middle English origins coming from the word metan, which means to find out. By the 1300s, the word changes to mean come together or come into contact with. It was also used to meet with approval or act in agreement. In 1520, meet and meeting were used to mean assembly.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase meets in the middle and meet halfway started showing up in text in 1620. It referred to making concessions, equal and mutual. It was found in both educational texts and legal documents in many English-speaking countries. The modern usage of the phrase has remained constant since 1620, with a minor amount of secular spinoff meanings. The sexual meaning behind the phrase originated in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What does meet halfway mean?\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-sPcTM7iZJk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to Meeting in the Middle<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Compromise<\/li>\n<li>Make it work<\/li>\n<li>Meet halfway<\/li>\n<li>Give a little to get a little<\/li>\n<li>Be flexible<\/li>\n<li>Work with<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Phrases Opposite to Meeting in the Middle<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Uncompromising<\/li>\n<li>Hard stance<\/li>\n<li>Stagnant<\/li>\n<li>Opposed<\/li>\n<li>Unbending<\/li>\n<li>Playing hardball<\/li>\n<li>Unmoving<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The proper way to say the phrase is \u2013 to meet in the middle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ways People May Incorrectly Say Meeting in the Middle<\/h2>\n<p>Some ways that meeting in the middle is used incorrectly are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When asking for complete control or to dominate a deal.<\/li>\n<li>When there is no mutual agreement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase Meeting in the Middle<\/h2>\n<p>Some ways that meeting in the middle is used correctly are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In order to accommodate the two companies, we have decided to moderate their attempts at meeting in the middle for negotiations.<\/li>\n<li>The best thing about using arbitrators is that two opposing sides can meet in the middle without losing face.<\/li>\n<li>Stop fighting me on every decision, if you meet me in the middle, you will realize how far we can progress.<\/li>\n<li>Bangladesh gained its independence from West Bengal because there was no way to meet in the middle regarding the topic of language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Are you working hard to compromise with someone at work? Maybe you have a difficult neighbor with whom you keep bumping heads. If so, it is a good idea to try meeting them in the middle so that both sides are able to live happily. Not sure what meeting in the middle means? This post [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9976,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions\/9976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}