La mi-août

Question

Ok, I should have heard the "la" but I didn't - and I put "le mi-août" because août is masculine. Is it, then, the case that if you use the prefix "mi-" the whole thing ( "mi-qqch") invariably becomes feminine?

Accepted Answer

https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/mi-
1. Dans le temps. La, à, à la mi- + subst.[Les mots constr. désignent une période dont la durée est de la moitié de celle qui est désignée par le 2eélém. ou un moment qui se situe au milieu de celle-ci; ils sont tous fém. à l'exception de mi-temps (v. mi-temps (à)2)] V. mi-carême, mi-temps1.

Answer

Jim, it is not invariably the case that nouns prefixed with ‘ mi- ‘ are or become feminine gender

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/mi-bas

and some words have different meaning according to gender

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/mi-temps

I am still searching for a description of a rule that goes beyond assignment of the months (is it for all nouns indicating time rather than place for instance ?). If there is one, I clearly haven’t found the right search words yet to exclude huge lists of extraneous material !

Hopefully someone will be able to confirm if there is a predictive rule, or if it is just another area to acquire in context.

Answer

Thanks Alan, I thought you might know a reference resource for this !