Etymologically
Log in

Mitte

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 18:01. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

Mitte f (genitive Mitte, plural Mitten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German mitte, inherited from Old High German mittī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *midjǭ (“middle”).[2][3][1] Old High German also had a neuter noun mitti, used by Otfrid and in the Tatian.[4][3] The same noun is Old Saxon middia, Middle Low German midde, Old English midde and Old Norse miðja.[2][3][5]

The noun is an abstract formed from the adjective Proto-Germanic *midjaz (“middle”), which is Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌹𐍃 (midjis), Old Norse miðr, Old English midd and the Old High German adjective of the same form as the neuter noun.[2][3][1] It continues Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”), also found in Sanskrit मध्य (mádhya), Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos) and Latin medius.[2][3][1] Pfeifer adds Balto-Slavic words for things lying in the middle as a boundary, such as Lithuanian medis (“tree, wood”) and Russian межа (mežá, “boundary”);[3][5] Orel compares Proto-Slavic *medja (“boundary”).[3][5]

The adjective has died out as an independent word in modern German, but survives in mitten, a frozen dative plural, and in Mittag, Mitternacht and Mittwoch.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German adjective mitti “middle” is recorded from the 8th century, the neuter noun from the 9th, and the feminine mittī around 1000, in Notker.[3][7] Schützeichel finds the neuter only in Otfrid.[8]

Semantic evolution

Until the 17th century, and in literature until the 19th, Mitte could also be inflected as a weak noun (in der Mitten).[9] The Grimms note that Middle and New High German long let it give way to the neuter Mittel, and that the modern language took it up again after that word had aged in these uses.[10] Besides the point or part in the middle, it came to mean the waist, the middle of a period of time (Mitte des Monats), a state between two extremes, and the centre in politics, between left and right;[9][11] Reich der Mitte renders the Chinese name for China.[9][11] The call ab durch die Mitte! “off with you!” comes from stage directions.[6][9] Upper Silesian Polish has mita “middle” from German.[12]

Timeline

  • 8th century – The Old High German adjective mitti is recorded.[7][13]
  • 9th century – The neuter noun mitti appears.[3]
  • Around 1000 – Notker uses the feminine mittī.[3]
  • 17th century – Weak inflection goes out of ordinary use.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The middle or centre, the point or part equally distant from the ends or edges: Der Tisch steht in der Mitte des Raums.[11][1]
  2. A point or period halfway between two limits: Mitte Juli, Mitte dreißig (aged about 35).[11][14]
  3. A position between two extremes: die goldene Mitte, the golden mean.[11]
  4. A group of people: in unserer Mitte, among us.[11]
  5. (politics) The parties or groups between left and right.[11][14]
  6. (dated) The waist.[14][4]

Word family

  • Jahrhundertmitte
  • Stadtmitte

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 627
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 520
  5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 567
  7. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 516
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 226
  9. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2378
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  14. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org