the.com/happy medium
The compromise where nobody's thrilled but everyone stops complaining loud enough to notice.
means A middle course between two extremes that avoids the problems of either — the workable 'just right' point in between too much and too little.
from Built from 'happy' in its older sense of 'fortunate or apt' (not necessarily joyful) plus 'medium,' Latin for 'middle,' referring to the midpoint between extremes. The phrase echoes the ancient idea of the golden mean — Aristotle's notion that virtue lies between excess and deficiency — repackaged in English by the 1700s as a tidy, proverbial way to say 'the sensible in-between.'
- origin
- blends happy with Aristotle's golden mean idea
- misconception
- not about being half-happy, it's balance
- reality
- usually means someone caved first
- spotted in
- thermostats, group dinners, every family vacation