midway

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English midwei, also middewai,^[2][3] inherited from Old English midweg (“midway”),^[4][5][3] formed from Old English midd + weg, the ancestors of mid and way.^[6][5][7] Compare Middle Dutch middewech and Middle Low German middewech, and Danish midtvej (“middle course”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The middle of a way or distance, the halfway point: in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,^[6][3] where the town of Zoar stands midway between the mountains and the marshes.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle English the noun could mean a middle course between two extremes, and be used as an adjective and an adverb.^[2] The adverb, "halfway", is recorded from about 1230, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[6][3] The noun in its first sense became poetic and then obsolete,^[6][8][5] and the sense "middle course" lasted until 1881.^[6] The adjective, situated in the middle, intermediate, is in Shakespeare's King Lear (1608), where crows wing "the midway air", and was mainly poetic at first.^[6][9][5] Coleridge used midway as a preposition in 1798.^[6] In North America the word took a new sense in 1893, from the Midway Plaisance, the central avenue of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago: the avenue of sideshows and amusements at a fair or carnival.^{[7][6][10][11]} Carnival workers then applied it to the main street of a town, and slang to any brightly lit entertainment strip; in 1930s African American slang a midway was a hallway.^[11] The Midway Islands in the Pacific are named for lying midway between America and Asia.^[7]

Timeline

• 9th century – the middle of the way, in King Alfred's Pastoral Care.^[6][3]
• c. 1230 – adverb, halfway.^[6]
• c. 1451 – a middle course (obsolete by 1881).^[6]
• 1573 – adjective, moderate, partial (obsolete by 1675).^[6]
• 1608 – adjective, situated in the middle, in Shakespeare's King Lear.^[6]
• 1798 – preposition, in the middle of, in Coleridge.^[6]
• 1893 – the avenue of amusements at a fair, after the Chicago exposition.^[6][7]
• 1933 – a hallway, in African American slang.^[11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In or to the middle of the way or distance; halfway: The bus broke down midway between the two towns.^[12][5][6]

Adjective

1. Situated in the middle; intermediate.^[12][5][6]

Noun

1. (US and Canada) The part of a fair or carnival where the sideshows, rides and amusements are.^[12][5][6]
2. (obsolete) The middle of the way or distance.^[5][8][6]
3. (obsolete, 1451–1881) A middle course between extremes.^[12][8][6]

Preposition

1. (rare) In the middle of; halfway along.^[5][6]

Related words

• mid
• way
• halfway
• midst
• middle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins