Etymologically
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midland

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɪdlənd/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English mid + lond (“land”), the Middle English forms of mid and land.[2][3][4][5] An earlier noun with the same meaning was Middle English middel lond, recorded about 1300.[4][3] In the sense "Mediterranean" the word follows Medieval Latin mediterrāneus, which is likewise formed from words for "middle" and "land".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Located in, or living in, the middle of England: Osbern Bokenham's Mappula Angliae (before 1447) speaks of the eight mydlonde-shiris, the Midland shires.[6][3][2] Etymonline dates the adjective to the early 15th century, glossed "in the interior of a country".[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both "inland, central, far from the sea" and, specifically, "belonging to the middle counties of England".[3][6] As a noun it is recorded from 1555, for the interior of a country,[4][2][3] and in the plural, the Midlands, for the inland counties of central England from the early 17th century.[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "that which is remote from the coast", quoting Browne on the midland inhabitants of Britain.[7] A learned sense, "Mediterranean", appeared in 1579, used both of land-locked seas in general and of the Mediterranean Sea itself; it is now poetic or literary.[3][5][2][8] In the United States the word was used from 1785, by Thomas Jefferson, for the central area of the eastern states between north and south;[3] from the late 19th century it also named one of the regional varieties of American English, spoken roughly between the Northern and Southern dialect areas.[3][5][8] In British colloquial use the Midland could also mean a company with the word in its name, such as the Midland Railway or the Midland Bank (1867, Dickens).[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – the earlier noun middel lond.[4]
  • before 1447 – adjective, of the English Midlands; central and inland.[3][6][2]
  • 1476 – Scots, the middle part of the land in a holding (obsolete).[3]
  • 1555 – noun, the interior of a country.[3][2][4]
  • 1579 – midland sea, the Mediterranean.[3][2]
  • 1601 – inland.[2]
  • 1660–1807 – of the Mediterranean Sea (obsolete).[3]
  • 1785 – the central area of the eastern United States, in Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.[3]
  • 1867 – colloquial, a company called Midland, in a letter of Dickens.[3]
  • 1873 – of the Midland dialect of American English.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The central or inland part of a country.[9][8][3]
  2. the Midlands: the central counties of England.[8][3][5]
  3. The central region of the eastern United States, especially as a dialect area of American English.[3][5][8]
  4. The dialect of English spoken in the Midland counties of England, or in the Midland region of the United States.[8]

Adjective

  1. Situated in the interior of a country; far from the coast; inland: a midland market town.[8][3][9]
  2. Of or belonging to the English Midlands, or to the Midland dialect of English or American English.[8][3][5]
  3. (poetic) Surrounded or nearly surrounded by land; mediterranean.[8][3][5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins