the.com/meantime
The waiting room of time itself — nothing happens, yet everything does.
means The interval between now and some later event — the stretch of time while you wait for something else to happen.
from A straightforward fusion of 'mean' (in its old sense of 'middle,' from Old French 'meien,' ultimately Latin 'medianus') and 'time.' So 'meantime' literally means 'middle-time' — the time in the middle of two points. It first showed up as two words, 'mean time' or 'the mean while,' before fusing into one over centuries of everyday use.
- origin
- from mean plus time, literally the middle time
- grammar trap
- one word as noun, two as adverb phrase
- synonym
- interim, but with less paperwork
- secret use
- where procrastination politely calls itself patience