mid

mid · adjective, noun, adverb, preposition¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*me
2. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-?
3. Proto-Indo-European*médʰi
4. Proto-Indo-European*médʰyos
5. Proto-Germanic*midjaz
6. Proto-West Germanic*midi
7. Old Englishmidd
8. Middle Englishmid
9. English todaymid

Inherited from Middle English mid, midde, from Old English midd (“mid, middle, midway”), from Proto-West Germanic *midi, from Proto-Germanic *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognate with Dutch midden (“in the middle”), German Mitte (“center, middle, mean”), Icelandic miður (“middle”, adjective), Latin medius (“middle”, noun and adjective). See also middle. The slang sense may be influenced by terms such as middling and midwit.

mid · noun²

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*médʰyos“between, in the middle, middle”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*midją
3. Old English · inherited frommidd“midst, middle”
4. Middle English · inherited frommid
5. English todaymid

From Middle English mid, midde, from Old English midd (“midst, middle”, noun), from Proto-Germanic *midją, *midjǭ, *midjô (“middle, center”) < *midjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognate with German Mitte (“center, middle, midst”), Danish midje (“middle”), Icelandic midja (“middle”). See also median, Latin mediānus.

mid · noun³

Clipping of mid-range.

mid · preposition⁴

1. German Low German · derived frommid
2. German · derived frommit
3. English todaymid

From or representing German mit, and/or perhaps German Low German mid. Although Middle English had a native preposition mid with this same meaning ("with"), it had fallen out of general use by the mid 1400s and survived into the modern English period only in sporadic use and the compounds midwife and theremid.

Words from the same roots