I heard it all the time growing up from aunts and grands. I know some of the southern slang is shared so want to be sure.

Regardless I think it may be the GOAT backhanded reply of all time. Mainly because you can say it and people will assume it's fine.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

He was born & raised in Savannah but they raised me in the midwest. I can tell you I never heard any white folks say it in Ohio.

I can't say for sure but I would think if any white folks used it, they would be in the south.

Because I've never heard "fair to meddling" in real life and can't think of a context in which it makes sense unless it is like "waiting on baby's breath"

And if it is fair to middling, no it is not a Black phrase

and it's a common enough phrase wherever

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fair%20to%20middling

fair to middling idiom

Definition of fair to middling
: just average : not especially good
The food was fair to middling.

what does it mean?

I was hearing middling as meddling and translating as: "Fair to people meddling in my business."

Basically stop being nosy.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

I figured it was a "double barrows" moment but what you though it meant is hilarious!!!

To indicate the person is doing so-so, average, alright? My (black) Brooklyn born and raised stepmother uses it all the time, but I think she got it from moving to Atlanta.

Who was a coworker of mine on the reservation.

He would always use it when people asked how he was doing. In fact, he used it so often that if you asked a mutual friend or one of his relatives how he was doing, that was their response.

I lived in the gaslamp quarter for a year and loved every minute of it. I visted about two years ago with my lady and it was her first time. Now we're talking about going back again permanently.

Even though, after out last visit, homelessness has gotten shockingly worse out there.

its still a beautiful city tho.

One of my favorite trips and I probably only saw a quarter of the city

Farm goods were graded by good, fair, middling, and poor. So "fair to middling" meant mediocre.

I knew that literature minor would come in handy...

..not meddling.

Blame regional accents and misunderstanding.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

“Privates, none of y’all will be getting any personal time, this weekend...performance at the range was fair to middling...and I’m being generous”