medize
medize verb: to side with the Persians; to be loyal to the Persian Empire rather than Greeks.
Verb (1)
medize (third-person singular simple present medizes, present participle medizing, simple past and past participle medized)
- To side with the Persians; to be loyal to the Persian Empire rather than Greeks.
- It is sometimes said that in giving unfavourable or ambiguous responses to Athens, Delphi was medizing. But surely this view is wide of the mark. What could Delphi possibly hope to gain by siding with the Persians? If Delphi was in fact medizing, why did the Persians attempt to take it and to...1979, Hypomnemata: Untersuchungen zur Antike und ihrem Nachleben, Heft 55, Servants of the Gods: A Study in the Religion, History and Literature of Fifth-century Athens, page 74
- There would also have been the problems of deciding in each particular case whether the medizing had been voluntary or done under duress, and within each community whether all had been guilty or only some dominant group.1983, John Van Antwerp Fine, The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History, page 327
Verb (2) capitalized: Medize
Medize (third-person singular simple present Medizes, present participle Medizing, simple past and past participle Medized)
- Alternative form of medize.
Forms of medize
| third-person singular present | medizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | medizing |
| past participle | medized |
| past | medized |
| alternative form | Medize |
| alternative form | medise |
| alternative form | Medise |
| third-person singular present | Medizes |
| present participle | Medizing |
| past participle | Medized |
| past | Medized |
Origin of medize
From the Ancient Greek verb μηδίζω (mēdízō, literally “side with the Medes”), corresponding to Mede + -ize.
Questions about medize
- What does medize mean?
- Medize means to side with the Persians; to be loyal to the Persian Empire rather than Greeks.
- What part of speech is medize?
- Medize is a verb.
- What is the past tense of medize?
- The past tense of medize is medized.
Words near medize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: medize (page history and authors); Medize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “medize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/medize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.