with

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English with (“against; with”),^[2][3] inherited from Old English wiþ (“against, opposite; toward, near”),^[4][5][6][3] probably a shortened form of the Germanic preposition seen in wiþer (“against”),^[6][7][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *wiþrą.^[4][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian with, Old Saxon wið, Old Norse við and viðr, Swedish vid and Danish ved, and the longer form with Old Saxon withar (“against”), Old High German widar (“against, back, again”), German wider (“against”) and wieder (“again”), Middle Dutch weder, Dutch weer (“again”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌸𐍂𐌰 (wiþra, “against”).^{[7][5][4][3][8]} The OED suggests the shortening first took place in compounds.^[7] The Germanic word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wi-tero- (“more apart”), formed with the comparative suffix Proto-Indo-European *-teros on Proto-Indo-European *wi- (“apart, separation”),^{[4][6][3][8][5]} the root that also gave wide.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Against, opposite, toward: Barnhart dates Old English wiþ to about 725, in Beowulf.^[5] Its main early senses were those of opposition ("against") and of motion or rest close to something ("towards, alongside"), and the OED's Old English senses include "in exchange for" and "in defence from".^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the ancestral meaning was "against", which its German relative wider keeps, and that "accompaniment" was a secondary if ancient development.^[9] The old sense survives in withdraw, withhold and withstand.^[4][3][10] In Middle English with took over the senses of association, combination and union that Old English had expressed with mid, which survives only as a prefix, as in midwife.^{[4][5][3][10]} Barnhart and Etymonline attribute this partly to Old Norse viðr, which also meant "toward, with", and perhaps to association with Latin cum (“with”);^[5][4] the OED finds the beginnings of the new uses early in English, with parallels in Old Frisian, Old Saxon and Old Icelandic.^[7] The sense of instrument or cause, as in cut with a knife, emerged in the 12th century,^[9][6] and the OED notes that the agent sense was later largely taken over by the preposition by.^[7] The senses "towards" and "from" died out by about 1325, and "opposite to" by 1400.^[7] With child, pregnant, is recorded from about 1200.^[4] Johnson (1755) began his list of senses with "by, noting the cause", followed by the means and the instrument.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English wiþ, against, opposite, toward, in Beowulf.^[5]
• 12th century – of the instrument or cause.^[6][9]
• c. 1200 – with child, pregnant.^[4]
• 1325 – last record of the sense "towards".^[7]
• 1400 – last record of the sense "opposite to".^[7]

Meanings

Preposition

1. In the company of; accompanying: She went to the fair with her cousin.^[12][13]
2. By means of; using: He opened the tin with a knife.^[12][7]
3. Having or possessing: a girl with long hair.^[12]
4. Concerning, in regard to: Be gentle with the puppy.^[12]
5. In opposition to; against: They argued with their landlord.^[13][7]
6. Despite: With all her money, she was never content.^[12]
7. Because of: trembling with fear.^[12]
8. In a manner marked by: She spoke with care.^[12]
9. So as to be separated from: He would not part with his old coat.^[13]
10. In the same direction as: sailing with the current.^[13]

Adverb

1. So as to have something added or present: Do you take your coffee with?^[13]

Word family

• therewith
• within
• without
• withdraw
• withhold
• withstand

Related words

• widdershins
• withers
• wide
• mid

Usage notes

Weekley noted that with is often treated like and, with a plural verb, as in the captain, with two others, were rescued, which he considered ungrammatical.^[10] A rare noun with, a partition between the flues of a chimney, recorded from 1708, is perhaps an alteration of width.^[7][13][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press