Etymologically
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midway

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Pronunciation

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]

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