midlife

Etymology

It is formed from English mid + life, the first element being the adjective.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the earlier compound middle life, which Etymonline dates to the early 14th century,^[2][3] and middle age.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The middle part of a person's life, middle age: before 1460, in Bokenham's Lives of Saints.^[2] The other dictionaries date the word much later: Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1807,^[6] Etymonline to 1813,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1895–1900;^[5] the Shorter Oxford calls it originally American and of the late 19th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED's revised entry of 2002 traces the noun back to the 15th century, but most dictionaries find it only from the 19th, so the word seems to have become common only then.^[2][6][3][4] Used before another noun or as an adjective, "of the middle period of life, middle-aged", it is recorded from 1858, in Surtees,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford dates this use to the mid 20th century.^[4] The phrase midlife crisis, a period of doubt about one's identity and purpose in middle age, is recorded from 1965,^[6][3] after crisis of mid-life in 1963.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1460 – the middle part of a person's life, middle age.^[2]
• 1858 – adjective, middle-aged; of or occurring in the middle period of life.^[2]
• 1965 – midlife crisis.^[6][3] Etymonline finds crisis of mid-life by 1963.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The middle part of a person's life, usually reckoned as the years between about 40 and 60; middle age: He took up the cello in midlife.^[7][6][2]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or happening in middle age: a midlife move to the country.^[7][6][2]
2. midlife crisis: a period of emotional turmoil and self-doubt in middle age, often with a strong wish for change.^[6][8]

Word family

• midlife crisis

Related words

• mid
• life
• middle age

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives mid-life as a less common spelling,^[6] and the OED and the Shorter Oxford enter the word in that hyphenated form.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin