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Reader question: Please explain “mean street”, “mean city” in this sentence: “On a mean street in a mean city, a thief tries to snatch an old woman’s bag.” My comments: This reads like a scene straight from Oliver Twist, a novel by Charles Dickens. On a mean street in a mean city live the poor people. Crimes may be rife there, too. Anyways, as an adjective, “a mean street in a mean city” means a poor street in a poverty stricken city. The question is, why? I’m not so sure, but the partial root of the word “mean” as an adjective is from Middle English mene, meaning common, shared, and from Latin medianus, or median, meaning middle, according to Merriam-Webster.com. Perhaps from these clues one can make sense of “mean” as an adjective in “mean street”. It offers connotations of being common and average, in the middle. If you have what is known as the “mean income”, for instance, you make the average income of your city or country. The “golden mean” means the golden middle way, never going to extremes. If mean income means average income, how come “mean” in “mean city” means poor? Originally mean streets and mean cities must have just been streets and cities where common folks congregate. They’re the masses in comparison with the elite, the upper classes of aristocrats and rich merchants. The common folk may not all be poor, for sure. Some are jobless but many are member of the working class, holding jobs and leading decent lives. At least one hopes so. | 
