middle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɪd.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English middel, inherited from Old English middel (“equally distant from extremes; intermediate”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *middila,^[2][3][5] formed with a suffix from the base of mid, Proto-Germanic *miðja-,^[2][5][4] from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo- (“middle”).^[3][6] Its cognates include Old Frisian middel, Old Saxon middil, Dutch middel and German Mittel.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Equally distant from the extremes: Old English middel, in 785;^[2] the OED's first example is before 900.^[7] The noun, the middle point, is also Old English, as is “the middle of the body, the waist”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle finger is from late Old English.^[3] Middle brother, “the second of three”, is from about 1205,^[7][3] and middle way, “a path of moderation”, from about 1200.^[3] Of size, rank or quality, “intermediate, medium”, is from about 1374.^[7] Middle-sized is by the 1620s.^[3] The Middle States of the US, between New England and the South, are named from 1784.^[3] Middle school is from 1838, first “a school for middle-class children”, and for the grades between elementary and high school from 1960.^[3] Middle-of-the-road, figuratively, is from 1894, first in politics,^[3] middle management by 1941, middle ground by 1961 and Middle America by 1968.^[3] The verb meant “to bisect” from 1703 and “to fold in the middle” in nautical use from 1841.^[7]

Timeline

• 785 – Old English middel.^[2]
• c. 1200 – middle way.^[3]
• c. 1205 – middle brother.^[7]
• c. 1374 – of size or rank, medium.^[7]
• 1703 – verb, to bisect.^[7]
• 1784 – the Middle States.^[3]
• 1838 – middle school.^[3]
• 1894 – middle-of-the-road.^[3]
• 1941 – middle management.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Equally distant from extremes or limits; central.
2. Intermediate; medium.
3. Coming between an earlier and a later period: the Middle Ages.
4. (grammar) Of a voice of verbs in which the subject acts on itself.

Noun

1. A point or area equally distant from extremes; the centre.
2. Something intermediate; a mean.
3. The middle part of the body; the waist.

Verb

1. To place in the middle; to fold in the middle.

Word family

• middlemost
• middler
• middle-aged

Related words

• mid-
• middling
• mid
• midst
• amid
• median
• medium
• mediate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press