midwitとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• IPA: /ˈmɪdwɪt/

名詞

midwit (plural midwits)

1. (neologism, chiefly Internet slang, mildly derogatory) A person of middling intellect; someone who is neither particularly dull nor particularly smart, especially if they act as though they are smarter than they are.

   Coordinate terms: halfwit, lackwit

   • 2022 January 7, Merri, “Brief Genealogy of the Midwit”, in The Pillarist‎:

     At no point in this process does the midwit have to review information for himself or consider ideas in abstract. […] How then should we not be midwits? Painting with broad strokes: avoid media. Cultivate taste. Grow and train your sense of aesthetics. Recognize beauty. Practice virtue. Pray.

   • 2023 February 11, Janan Ganesh, “After Germany's fall, which is the paragon nation?”, in FT Weekend, page 22:

     A true paragon nation captures the midwit, get-the-news-from-Trevor-Noah demographic.

   • 2023 February 21, David Sinclair, The Wolf Tamers: How They Made the Strong Weak‎:

     Congress is packed with midwits. There are no intellectuals in Congress. None could flourish in such a mediocre environment.

   • 2023 June 27, Josiah Gogarty, “Beware the midwit trap”, in The New Statesman‎, archived from the original on 27 June 2023:

     Online, people make fun of midwits with a specific meme format: an IQ bell curve, with a character placed at each extreme and one above the bulge in the middle. […] One example of the midwit trap is investing. Above, the midwit – perhaps a Reddit-browsing amateur trader, or the solid kind of chap who works in wealth management – will go on about hot stocks and market conditions.

   • 2025 May 10, Janan Ganesh, “Why travel didn't bring the world together”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:

     It is still a midwit dinner party applause line that such and such a percentage of Americans don't have passports.

使用する際の注意点

At least online, the term commonly carries connotations of the person deemed a “midwit” being oversocialized and holding socially acceptable views as if they were intellectually profound.

派生語

• midwittery

参考

• midbrow, midcult

アナグラム

• dimwit