Etymologically
Log in

middle

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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